Underland Magic
by Fate Pwns You
Summary: Alice Liddell has fallen down the rabbit hole and it has led her to a dark place filled with what she had once thought to only be mythical creatures. In mystical Underland where the Mafia are vampires, the Amusement Park is overrun with shapeshifters, and the Castle of Hearts is filled with elementals, Alice had never been afraid of the dark, but now she's having second thoughts…
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: Alice Liddell has fallen down the rabbit hole and it has led her to a dark place filled with what she had once thought to only be mythical creatures. In mystical Underland where the Mafia are vampires, the Amusement Park is overrun with shapeshifters, and the Castle of Hearts is filled with elementals, Alice had never been afraid of the dark, but now she's having second thoughts… Alice/All**

**This is a very, very, very old story idea I had way back when I was doing Childhood Wonder (aka the dinosaur age.) Since I'm back, I did some revamping to the outline and so here I am! :D**

**Not so sure how often updates will be, but here goes? :)**

**HnKnA isn't mine.**

**-.-**

**Underland Magic**

_Are you afraid of the dark?_

Turquoise colored eyes owlishly blinked, their focus that had previously been faced skyward gradually came to terms with their surroundings.

"Alice?"

With a hand moving to clutch at her top of her brown hair covered head, the young girl known as Alice found herself wincing while she turned to the other female that had called her name. She managed a smile to her lips quickly when it appeared her older sister was watching at her worriedly.

Alice immediately straightened herself up, her expression lightening up, "Did you say something before? Sorry, I dazed off for a second!"

Her sibling sat with her legs folded beneath her and a medium sized pumpkin situated on top of her lap on the large blanket the two had set up near the back porch of their home. Alice sat relatively close by from where the older girl was on the blanket, a few pumpkins sprawled out around her along with a carving knife not too far off.

It was then that she remembered what they were doing.

Carving Jack-o'-lanterns for the front of the house for decorations considering Halloween was already one night away.

Putting a hand to her mouth, her sister, Lorina gave a slight giggle, "No need to worry. I was just making sure you were okay. You were staring off at the moon for about five minutes straight, it didn't even look like you were breathing." She informed in amusement, effortlessly causing the younger female to blush lightly.

_You really shouldn't be._

Lorina cocked her head to the side, "If you stared at it any longer, I would have thought you were going to transform into a werewolf!"

The blue-clad brunette gave a weak laugh, "No, no. I'm fine. I was just daydreaming… Well, night dreaming in this case." She corrected herself with a dry smile to her lips while she turned her attention back up to the pumpkins around her.

Her older sibling on the other hand, averted her focus to the sky where the moon was still shining brightly and Alice released a low sigh, "Sorry for slacking. I know you wanted all these done by tonight, if not tonight, they'll all be done by tomorrow afternoon for sure." Alice reassured at the same time as she picked up her knife before she began to cut away at the top of the pumpkin.

Still not moving her fixed gaze from the moon, Lorina smiled gently, "What were you daydreaming about?"

This question caught Alice off guard for a moment and she had to pause her movements to catch herself.

When she found herself unable to truly put together everything to proper words she bit her bottom lip with furrowed eyebrows.

_After all, darkness as its own entity is entirely harmless._

"I… It was weird…" She mumbled modestly, "I don't really know how to describe it. It was just about vampires and werewolves fighting and then there was something about witches too, a bunch of them fighting each other and stuff." Alice truthfully remarked with a hand toward the top of her head, tone was hushed and soft, something that curiously caught her sister's attention.

"Hm?" Lorina inquired once more and Alice rapidly broke eye contact with her in favor of keeping her gaze locked on the pumpkin within her hands.

Shyly, she shook her head, "It was something that just sprang into my head. It's Halloween tomorrow, so I guess it was just about monsters and spirits. Just silly kid things." She attempted to laugh off airily, but even she could hear the uncertainty in her pitch.

Thankfully enough, Lorina didn't truly call her out on it and instead sent her a beam, "I guess you're truly getting into the Halloween spirit then, yeah?" Moving the pumpkin from her lap, her sister dusted off her skirt before standing up to her feet on the blanket, leaving Alice to stare up at her in confusion.

Lorina put a hand to her face charmingly, "Don't you suppose now would be the perfect setting to read some scary stories together?"

Surprised at her words, Alice watched at her sibling completely puzzled, "What? Scary stories?" She began to straighten up, almost in preparation to get up and follow after her older sibling that waved off at her pleasantly.

"Well, Halloween's tomorrow and all, not to mention the pumpkins can wait until tomorrow. If you're in a monster mood, we can read the stories together out here. Stay right here, I'll be back." Lorina instructed with a sweet smile before she turned her back and began her way toward the house.

_However…_

"Lorina…" Alice sighed out after her sister was out of earshot.

At this time, a large gust of wind suddenly gave a blow, and Alice found her shoulders slumping while her hands rested down on the blanket firmly.

The temperature outside was fairly chilly and Alice was a bit grateful that she had chosen to try on her Halloween costume along with Lorina for their pumpkin-carving session. She hadn't truly been in the spirit of dressing up for the event ever since their mom had died a couple years back, but Lorina was fond of Lolita-like fashion, so when she'd given Alice a costume based off of a character from some book of hers that she had read, Alice couldn't find it in herself to deny it.

Her eyes briefly scanned over the pumpkins that they had yet to begin carving. There were only about twelve of them and Alice couldn't help but allow one of her hands to move over to grab one and idly play with it within her grasp.

She never understood the point of making the vegetable into some sort of party decoration.

If she remembered correctly, Lorina had said something about the scary faces being made to scare off evil spirits on the haunted night, but Alice found that incredibly hard to believe. In fact, that assumption sounded incredibly childish and naïve.

After all, monsters and ghosts weren't real.

She hadn't had a phobia of those kinds of things since she was about twelve years old or so. As she grew older, she came to know that common sense was her best friend and things like those just couldn't exist in any logical sense.

_The things that reside in the dark…_

The wind continued its heavy tirade and the trees in the backyard all gave their own low noises as their leaves and branches were forced to one side, the unique sound they gave off all too familiar to the brunette who often found herself out back with her older sibling even on windy days.

Seeing it all at night time was a different experience all on its own.

With the darkness all around, it was creepier to sit out back alone.

Her teal eyes dulled considerably while she now began to cut off the top of the pumpkin in preparation to begin her carving.

_Those are what you should be afraid of._

"Alice…"

Hearing her name, Alice found herself growing sleepy, almost as though a slumbering spell had just been cast on her eyes.

It was like a whisper, so incredibly faint almost as though it had been carried with the wind, but it was still heard all too clearly to the female despite the fact she was edging closer and closer to sleep.

Was it Lorina calling for her?

It had sounded as though the voice had come from within the house and considering how it was just the two of them home alone that night, it had to be.

She considered just laying on the blanket and waiting for her sibling to return considering how lethargic her body had suddenly become, however she heard her name called again, this time more urgent.

"Alice!"

Now more attentive, the brunette rose up to her feet, her eyes watching ahead at the large house ahead of her plainly.

Slowly, she began her trek back into her home.

Each of her steps felt heavier than the last as she entered through the back door.

None of the lights in the kitchen were on and she couldn't help but allow her eyebrows to furrow at that. She would have assumed Lorina would have turned them on when she was going upstairs for the stories.

After flickering on the switch at the wall, Alice continued moving throughout the house which was still incredibly dark as though her sister hadn't even walked through.

The house was incredibly silent and she supposed that it really wasn't anything unusual. She couldn't remember the last time the house had much noise in it, aside from when she or Lorina were playing the piano.

"Lorina?" She called when she made it to the staircase, her hand clutched at the sleek wooden bar firmly while she looked upward at the dark and empty passage above.

The silence within the house was her only answer back and she had to frown at that.

While making her ascent upward, she couldn't help but wonder if Lorina planned on scaring her by jumping out from somewhere in the dark, but she had to pass the idea off because Lorina truly wasn't that type of person…

"What is she doing then…?" Alice breathed out to herself the instant she made it to the top.

Taking her steps toward the bedrooms, she gave a yawn while rubbing one of her eyes when the same sleep spell that had hit her from earlier suddenly returned.

Briefly, she considered just retiring to her room for the night but she knew she couldn't make Lorina go to all the trouble of finding a book and going out there to not see Alice there. Her sister did too much for her anyways.

Her feet kept a small pace in the direction of her older sister's room.

Walking down the hall, she couldn't help but come to notice that her bedroom door was wide opened.

The only odd thing was that there seemed to be an orange light emitting from inside of it.

Confused, the brunette's eyebrows furrowed before she allowed herself to peek inside of her room.

Inside was as she had left it before she had gone outside with her sibling, but the orange light was shining out throughout the room dully almost as though a flame was set inside. After walking in a bit, her eyes were instantly met with her large, full body mirror in shock.

The temperature within the room seemed to have heightened and Alice could only gape in fright as she found herself watching into her mirror that was hosting a floating fireball within. Her own reflection wasn't seen and her feet took a step backward cautiously.

"Am I dreaming…?" She dully muttered to herself with a hand to her face.

There was clearly no fire inside of the room so having one reflected back at her in the mirror made no sense whatsoever.

The flame inside the mirror seemed to move and Alice grunted before whirling on her heel, her mind immediately telling her to get her sister for help for whatever was occurring.

As she made it only a single step from the door, she found herself gasping in shock when her body was pulled back from behind abruptly.

But she was in the room alone, so how—?

Eyes wide, she turned her head around in order to view whoever grabbed her and when her gaze set on some man with white hair and glasses she felt her blood chill.

"What the— W-who are you!?" She cried in terror, nothing but bewilderment and shock surging throughout her body as the unfamiliar male smiled down at her kindly,

"I suppose it was rather foolish of me to think you'd willingly try to grab my flame, you're much too sensible for that."

His mouth was dangerously close to her ear and she released a shudder from within his arms at the feel of his breath on her skin.

"Smart and beautiful, what a combination." He stated right before Alice found her feet leaving the stability of the floor and she was hoisted over the man's shoulder suddenly.

Releasing a shriek of surprise, her hands automatically reached out to find something to latch onto and when they did, they grasped onto something soft and furry.

_Rabbit ears_?

Her eyes watched at the things within her fingers in nothing but fear and confusion.

The man had white rabbit ears growing out of his head.

"What!?"

He ignored her shout and instead began adjusting her within his grasp, now moving her into his arms bridal style firmly, "We must get going now, Underland's calling."

"P-put me down!" She demanded, the fear in her body beginning to reach its boiling point, she felt her survival instincts begin to kick in as her body began to writhe in his grasp furiously. The empty chill throughout her body continued to soar when it became all too apparent that his grip on her was too strong for her to escape out of.

"Lorina! Lorina, help!" Alice cried as she felt him beginning to walk, "Somebody, please!"

Her captor didn't seem the least bit panicked by her wails and instead gave a chuckle, but it wasn't a dark or sinister chuckle as she would have expected, in fact it was rather light hearted, as though he were casually responding to a story a friend had just told him.

"You're squirming so badly, if you don't stop I'll end up dropping you!"

When his steps went further into her room she found her eyes growing wide as he stood toward the farther end of the bedroom, his steps stopping directly across from the balcony, which had its door wide opened.

Feeling tears coming to her eyes, Alice shook her head furiously, "Let me go right now!" Her hands now became fists as she began hitting at his chest as hard as she could, however she didn't get more than two punches in before he began sprinting toward the balcony.

"What are you doing!? We're not on the first floor; if you jump, we're both going to die!" Alice screamed fearfully as he hopped on the ledge of terrace.

The man gave her an amused look, and Alice was now able to see from beneath the moon's light that his eyes were a striking shade of red, both hidden behind a pair of glasses and the bangs of his own white hair, "But if I don't jump, we can't fall down the hole."

Clutching onto the front of his shirt tightly while his balance seemed to sway in favor of falling over the edge of the balcony, Alice watched up at him frantically, "H-hole?" After her words, she turned her eyes down below and she instantly found herself stifling in shock at the sight of the gaping, dark, seemingly endless hole that was situated right in her backyard under her balcony.

"How did that get there!?"

That wasn't possible! She'd just been outside and that hole definitely hadn't been there!

Her captor pulled her more closely, gaining her attention uneasily as his lips pulled into a sweet smile, "Let's fall together."

She didn't have any time to register his words before he pushed himself off the ledge, bringing both himself and her plummeting downward into the large, round pit below.

The feeling of free falling was one that normally exerted excitement into her body, but this time around, nothing but terror filled her senses as the overwhelming sense of impending doom sang around her mind.

"We're going to die!" Alice exclaimed fearfully, the air whipping at her ears and her hair flying upward while the two of them continued falling, "I don't want it to end like this!"

The white haired man didn't relieve her of his hold and he kept her close even as they kept going down, his arm still coiled around her snuggly.

He flashed her a grin that made Alice immediately know he was crazy and there was no way she was going to survive this.

"Falling certainly is fun. It's unfortunate that we can't do it all the time, but it has to end eventually." He charmingly informed her and Alice gaped up at him in disbelief, "That isn't what I meant!" Her voice was carried away as she saw a light rapidly approaching from down below.

Squeezing her eyes shut she found her thoughts fleeting to that of last minute prayers before she ended up as nothing more but a gory pancake on the ground.

An overwhelming chill entered her body and it was as though all traces of heat in her system were sucked out in a single instant. The sensation caused her to gasp and right at the same time, she found the falling sensation in her stomach coming to an end as she was now placed on what felt to be solid ground.

Reluctantly, she peered open one of her teal eyes in an effort to see where she was.

Her surroundings were entirely unfamiliar but… It wasn't possible that she was dead, was it…? There was no way she could have survived that fall after all...

Getting up to her knees weakly, she cautiously found her eyes moving more outward where she could see a bunch of trees, making it obvious that she was on some structure with high elevation.

"That was quite fun!"

Alice whipped her head in the direction the cheerful words had been spoken and when she found them landing on the man from before, she gave a grunt before pushing herself backward from him suspiciously.

She was now able to get a full look at him and she couldn't help but grow more disgruntled at the sight.

He really _did _have rabbit ears. Big and furry, they were void of color as was the mess of hair on top of his head and the white clashed greatly with his pair of scarlet irises that watched at her so pleasantly. He must have been geared for Halloween early, probably as a male playboy bunny or something.

"Of course with my crappy luck, it happens to be a playboy bunny creep that kidnaps me." She dryly muttered to herself before she pointed her index finger at him crossly, "Listen here, you creeper! I don't know why you kidnapped me, but whatever the reason I hope you realize I'm of no use to whatever weird slave trade you have going!" Defensively, she stood to her feet and glared at him harshly, "Take me home!"

Tilting his head to the side, the man blinked, "Take you home? I'm sorry, but that isn't possible."

"You just dropped me down a hole that randomly appeared in my backyard to this place and you're telling me it isn't possible!?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you yet, did I?" He placed a gloved hand to his chin while he inspected her curiously, "This place has a name, you know! I suppose I should welcome you to Underland now, Alice! Please forgive my lack of manners, there's simply too much to do, my mind is reeling to get everything across."

Alice blinked her eyes wearily, "Underland…?"

He nodded happily before he began going into his pocket a bit more excitedly, "So much to do, we should be happy there is so much time to do it!"

The brunette gave him a weary look, "Wait… You know my name?" This kind of took her a bit by surprise though a part of her argued if he was sent to kidnap her; it'd make sense if he knew what her name was.

The male now glanced up, seemingly finding what he needed from his khaki colored pants before he began approaching her, something that instinctively caused her to take a few steps backward, "Well, of course I do. I love you after all."

Whatever was within his grasp, he uncorked before putting it to his mouth and taking in the contents.

Still disturbed, Alice watched him blankly as he made it in front of her, his tall frame somewhat intimidating over her shorter form especially when he leaned down closer to her face. Initially confused, Alice opened her mouth to question him once more but right as she did, she found herself hitching a gasp in the pit of her throat as he pressed his own lips against her opened ones.

The motion was enough to have her frozen as she felt some sort of warm liquid escape from his own mouth and enter her own.

Was that his saliva? The very thought grossed and freaked her out at the same time that she immediately began to struggle.

She tried to pulled away, frantic to breath and to spit out the substance but he held her steady and when Alice felt her lungs begging for a proper breath, she found herself swallowing the contents with her mouth, the taste was far too bitter to be saliva to her inner relief.

After she swallowed, the man pulled away with a bright expression on his face, though she couldn't see much of it as she doubled over and erupted in a fit of coughs.

"You don't need to be so shy around me! I could feel your heart beating so fast." He chuckled while he wiped his mouth with the back of his arm. Alice glared up at him through the thick of her hair menacingly.

Cracking her knuckles, she stood up straighter and began approaching him slowly, "You…"

"Ah, that's right! You don't know my name yet! Well, my name is Peter White."

"Peter White, huh?" She growled before flexing her fingers slightly, "Well, Peter White, you just second-hand fed me some strange liquid."

"Mmhm! It can't be helped if you're to stay in Underland." He affectionately eyed her as she continued her advanced, "Oh, Alice! I really can't wait to start mating with you—"

His words were cut off as Alice pulled her arm back before slamming her fist into his cheek as hard as she could.

Angrily, she grabbed the front of his coat and shook him, "You better take me home right now! I swear to God, I'm going to rip your ears off your head and force feed them to you!"

Peter watched up at her as though he were in a daze, "E-eh?"

"I don't have the time for this! Take me back!"

"I already told you, I can't! Ow! Ow!"

"And I told you I'd take these stupid Halloween-costume ears off and make you eat them, right!?"

"Alice, dear, please be more gentle with me! They're not a costume, they're real! A-ah!"

"Take me back home, right now!"

"Ow! A-Alice, that hurts! Ow!"

"Get back here!" Alice hissed dangerously as the man managed to slip out of her grasp.

Peter nervously adjusted his red crossed top his cheek appearing swollen as he tenderly put a hand to it with an anxious smile on his face, "You're rather strong for someone your size!" His other hand went up to pet at his ear that was limp on his scalp, "Unfortunately, I think it's time I take my leave from here for now." He began backing away to what appeared to be a door.

With a new kind of smile to his face, he waved at her in a rather eerie manner that made the female's anger dissolve slightly.

"I can't wait to see you again, Alice."

"Hey, wait!" Alice called to him, her hand reaching out as though to grab him back, but he was already gone.

Her eyes then fleeted to the floor where she found her gaze landing on what appeared to be a light blue glass vial.

Quietly, she allowed herself to scoop it up into her grasp. That was what the liquid that Peter had forced her to consume had been in… She'd probably need to carry it around as evidence when she was getting help.

After snapping the top back on it, she pushed it into her apron pocket before racing out the door that Peter had gone through.

Looking down, she was able to see nothing but stairs down below. Not wanting to grow discouraged, she swallowed down a gulp before she began her trek downward.

It was obvious that she was in a tower of some sort, and judging by the amount of stairs she had just gone through, it was a pretty big one.

"Is anyone even in here?" She lowly asked herself with a hand moving to her chest.

It felt like she had been going throughout the thing for over ten minutes and she had yet to find sight of anyone.

Naturally, with her bad luck, Peter had to have dropped her off into some sort of abandoned tower more than likely miles away from civilization. The thought made her grow uneasy, but she tried to keep her thoughts positive.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps echoed throughout the stairwell and Alice found herself stopping in surprise. When the noise persisted and she was positive that it wasn't her own, her heart began to pick up speed before she perked up and began racing down a bit more quickly.

Turning the corner, she found herself looking down the staircase at another man now.

A polite smile made its way to her lips as she watched down at him modestly. Her mind was still a bit taken unexpectedly and she urged it to come up with something appropriately to say, "H-hello! I was wondering if you could—"

Her words ended in a crushed gasp as Alice staggered for a breath, her eyes growing wide and her access to air was cut off out of nowhere.

It felt like someone was choking her.

Both of her hands flew to her throat frantically in an effort to remove whatever force was there constricting her air supply, but nothing was there as far as she could tell and she could feel her panic levels rising quickly while her fingers clawed at her neck desperately.

What was going on!?

She could feel her lungs whining for relief and she was unable to supply it as her mouth opened and attempted to breathe, however the pressure at her throat didn't waver.

"Who are you?"

The voice allowed her to remember that she wasn't alone and her gaze cut downward to where the man from before was standing. His right arm was extended up and outward in her direction, his hand had its fingers clenched in a rather odd way that somewhat mirrored as though he were crushing an invisible ball within his grasp.

His cobalt blue eyes watched at her aggressively and they seemed to narrow at her dangerously when she didn't answer immediately, a fact that made her grow more confused with the passing second.

Why wasn't he showing any confusion at her state? Shouldn't he be trying to help her?

Unless...

His fingers seemed to incline toward his palm slightly and even in her panic, Alice came to notice that his gesture correlated to the pressure at her throat becoming more intense.

... This man was choking her without even touching her?

How was that even possible?

Realizing now that if she didn't explain herself, he'd probably end up killing her, Alice attempted to muster out her explanation as painlessly as she could especially when she felt her body beginning to levitate off of the ground ever so slightly.

"Peter… White… He brought me... Here…" She weakly informed, her eyes sincerely watching at him while her lungs felt just about ready to burst. Alice could feel her face's temperature as unbelievably hot and her heart was pumping incredibly fast, "I… Can't... Breathe…" She choked out.

Instantly after her words, her feet made contact with the floor below her once more and the choking sensation at her neck disappeared entirely as though it had never been there in the first place.

Alice held her throat tenderly while she began gasping for air and she spared him a cautious look, "M-my name is Alice Liddell and I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to intrude in your home, but it wasn't even my fault! Peter White kidnapped me and fed me some weird potion before disappearing on me! I was just trying to look for someone to help me!" She attempted to reason, her body tensing up in fear when the man grunted and brought one of his hands up to brush a piece of his long, dark hair past his ear.

"No, I should be the one that's sorry. I attacked without warning." He insisted, his tone was flat and cold that Alice found herself carefully observing him as he turned to walk away, "Well, come along now. Unless you plan on standing there all day."

His harsh way of speaking was enough to somewhat bring her out of her daze that her mind was still in from the unexpected attack she had been under before and though she wasn't too sure on going after him, she knew she didn't have much other choice.

Biting her bottom lip, she clenched her fists at her sides before she began hurrying down the steps in order to follow after him.

"My name is Julius Monrey and I'm the owner of this Clock Tower." He explained while opening the door to a large office.

Alice mutely fell in step behind him, a hand to her mouth as she silently observed everything around her in curiosity. There were a lot of clocks all around the room as there were outside; she supposed it made sense the place was called Clock Tower.

Not only that, but the place was so big; it seemed easy to get lost in.

Julius took a seat at the single desk within the room, his eyes glancing up at her seriously, "Now then, Alice, if what you told me before is true, I don't know how to be any more blunt than to tell you that you are a human in Underland."

Standing before him somewhat awkwardly, Alice blinked her eyes, "A human…? You say that like you're not—"

"Underland is a world filled with what your world would refer to as monsters."

Caught off guard, Alice found herself frowning, "Monsters? Monsters aren't real." She attempted to reason gently, not wanting to offend him and when his eyes critically watched into hers, she allowed herself to grow silent, though her apprehension didn't fade.

"Anyways, Underland is a country divided into four domains. There's the Hatter Territory which is dominated by vampires, the Amusement Park has shapeshifters, and the Castle of Hearts is elemental filled. The three of them are currently in a power struggle in terms of land supremacy, so things are a bit violent." With his explanation Alice's eyes dulled.

He was speaking so seriously… But vampires didn't exist; neither did shapeshifters and what exactly were elementals?

Still not really wanting to get him angry, Alice cleared her throat, "Uh… Alright, well in that case, where are we?"

Julius frigidly eyed her, "We're in the fourth domain, the Clock Tower and of all the territories, it's neutral amid everything. Not only that, but this is the territory predominantly for espers."

At the word, Alice found her eyes widening in realization. She could remember once reading a book about espers. They were those supernatural humans that had those psychic based abilities…

If that were the case, that explained how Julius had been able to choke her earlier… He had used telekinesis.

Straightening up now, she licked her lips as the prospect of being stuck in a world where mythical beings probably existing started to weave its way into her mind, "Ah! I see! Does that mean you can also read minds then?"

"No, I can only use telekinesis. It's mostly for protection considering my role."

Alice's curiosity peaked at that, but before she could inquire him on what that meant, he continued, "Back to you, you wouldn't happen to have the vial that had the potion that Peter White gave to you?"

"Oh, I do!" Alice instantly answered with a nod, her hand fished into her apron pocket to reveal the glass item to the man that watched at it with a nod, his arms folding over his chest with a blank expression on his face, "You need to keep that close to you. I don't know the specifics or details, but I'm pretty sure that'll play a key part in getting you back home."

The thought made her glance down at it curiously while she played with it within her fingers, "Hopefully I can get back soon…" Her eyebrows furrowed before she determinedly brought her head back up to stare Julius in the eye, "Where can Peter be found? I need to find him. He may be able to tell me more about how to get home."

Seemingly shocked at her random display of energy, Julius quickly caught himself before coughing into his hand briefly, "He's always at the Castle of Hearts. He's the Prime Minister there, so catching him anywhere else unless he's on official business is rare."

"Great! I'll go find him and give him a piece of my mind again!"

"Where do you think you're going?" Julius cut off before the girl had a chance to turn around and head to the door.

Blinking, Alice pointed at the exit, "To the Castle of Hearts!"

"Do you have a death wish?" He arched a brow her way and Alice felt herself flush slightly, "It's sunset right now. If you leave now, you'll be caught out there alone during nightfall and being a human, that's just about the worst thing you could do in Underland."

Sporting a frown now, Alice now tried to go over her options.

She really didn't have much of anything to do, though he really was right. If the place was composed of monsters, she couldn't even imagine what would happen to her in the dead of night out there.

The thought sent a shiver throughout her body before she sighed with a meek look the long haired male's way, "Alright… I guess I'll go looking for him tomorrow. It wouldn't be a problem if I stayed here for the time being, would it?"

Julius shrugged his shoulders, his body now moving toward the side of his desk to where a box of clocks was situated. He brought one of them out and onto his desk, his eyes not meeting hers as he spoke, "Do as you wish."

"Thank you, Julius." She gratefully breathed out before she made her way back to the door, her mind already set on exploring more of the Tower. She'd have to find a bedroom, the bathroom, and she prayed that there were some female guest night clothes somewhere in the place that could fit her.

She had a feeling that she was going to end up staying in this place for a while.

**-.-**

**This is really long, I don't even know why.**

**Having smut in the future is a huge possibility so I'll probably bump the rating up if that's the case ayy B) and I'm drowning in WIPs of chapter updates and oneshots, so I should really get to work on that and hopefully just have an updating rush/party :D**

**Anyways, I hope you liked it and if you left a review to tell me your thoughts, it'd be fifty shades of swag**


	2. Chapter 2

**The best part about this story is that I actually have a lay out to follow so I'm not randomizing everything as I go along hehehe**

**I still have so many other WIPs to complete and post up, haha. It's been a busy weekend.**

**I also feel so weird about not naming my chapters… I may in the future, but for right now I'm debating on if I even should omg**

**-.-**

"Good morning, Julius." Alice greeted politely with a smile as she walked into the man's office.

After sleeping through the night, she honestly felt so much more refreshed when she woke up. Clearly if she was able to sleep within a dream, it meant that she wasn't really dreaming and everything she had experienced was truly real, but at the same time, it was kind of impossible so she still had her doubts.

It didn't really matter… If she was dreaming or not, she just wanted to get back home where she wasn't worrying for her life. Just remembering how she hadn't been able to advance out of the Tower to meet the one man who knew how to get her home because of 'monsters' lurking around at night was really disheartening.

She still wasn't even sure about the whole monster business.

Julius glanced up from the clock that had been on his desk to give her a stare and as he did so, Alice found her memories flashing back to their first meeting the night before.

She could practically still feel the pain at her neck from the choking sensation she had gotten just from him raising a hand and moving his fingers about.

He really didn't even seem like that much of a threat from afar. He looked incredibly normal, like any other person working at their desk. Blinking her eyes and watching him more observantly in mind she couldn't help but remember how scary he had seemed when he thought she was a threat… It was really best if she stayed on his good side.

The expression he gave her was incredibly blank, she supposed it should have taken her by surprise but she couldn't find it in herself to down her own mood. Besides, it seemed like Julius wasn't a morning person in the first place.

"Good morning." His voice was as deep and serious as ever and Alice allowed her smile to light up that much more while she approached his desk with her hands behind her back.

Like last night, he was still fixing clocks and if Alice didn't know any better she would have assumed that he had stayed there all night.

Part of her wanted to question him about it, but the last thing she wanted was to seem like someone that just asked questions for the sake of hearing her own voice. It was pretty obvious that he was fixing them because it was his job… She really doubted he had a hobby to fix them.

"Thanks again for letting me sleep over. I hope I'll be able to leave by today so I won't have to intrude anymore." She gave him a kind smile while he lowered his tools, one of his eyebrows rising up inquisitively, "You're leaving for the Castle of Hearts now?"

She nodded, "Mmhm. I want to get home as soon as possible. I'm sure that my sister is probably worried sick about me by now." As an afterthought, the brunette curled a piece of her hair in her finger with a small sigh, "I'm probably going to end up missing Halloween… That sucks…"

Julius observed her knowingly, "I see. Well, make sure to be careful. The Castle of Hearts is known throughout the country as the territory infamous for housing the 'Psychos of Underland' considering the amount of elementals there."

His words didn't do much to lessen her determination while she waved at him with a grin before turning toward the exit, "I'll be fine! I'll also be back before nightfall!"

As she began making her descent down the stairs, she supposed she could have been more practical and asked him for a map of some sort to get her there faster, but then she figured if the route there was that complicated, he would have offered it to her himself.

Stepping outside for the first time through the doors, Alice found herself marveling at the scenery before her.

With a clench to her fists she took in a deep breath before shooting a hand up in the air in determination, "I won't lose!" Channeling her inner energy, she charged down the nearest path to her that led through what appeared to be a dense forest.

As she kept running, she could only think of the various ways she'd get Peter White to cooperate so she could get home.

Nothing was going to stop her!

-.-

Alice slumped her shoulders tiredly as she continued her walk ahead.

It had to have been at least two hours since she had left the Clock Tower and she was still wandering in the forest with no sight of anything around. Though, she had to admit it was partially her own fault because she had turned around at one point to try and go back in order to get a map from the telekinetic man and then her indecisive nature made her end up turning back around. When she turned around, she had a feeling she hadn't been going in the direction she had been previously and thus…

She was more than likely lost.

Moaning to herself, she ran a hand through her bang and in the process nearly pushed off her bow that was on top of her hair.

"So much for not losing…" She sighed out to herself glumly while looking down at the cerulean colored bow in her grasp.

She couldn't even find the Castle of Hearts, how was she supposed to find a way home?

At that rate, she was going to be stuck there…

The brunette frowned as her fingers clutched the accessory a bit more tightly.

No.

She wasn't going to be stuck. She refused.

"Lorina went to all the trouble of getting me this costume; I might as well get back home on Halloween to wear it for her." Alice whispered right as she placed the bow back on top of her head more.

She couldn't give up. Lorina was waiting for her back at home. No matter what, she had to make it back.

With her zeal renewed, her body straightened up once more before she began her way down the path ahead of her.

After about five minutes, distantly she could hear a bunch of noise, though it was a bit mushed together with what sounded like people's screams and what Alice could only assume to be wheels on steel.

Quickly, she was able to conclude that she was near the Amusement Park.

This wasn't the territory she wanted to be in though…

The pathway she was on diverged into a bigger one up ahead and through the trees Alice was able to see other people on the main trail.

Now attentive, the female paused her steps and walked over to one of the nearby trees as quickly as she could. Attempting to hide behind the trunk, she tried looking further ahead in the direction the people on the other path were heading towards.

Distantly she could make out what she assumed to be ticket booths.

"I guess it could have been worse…" She muttered to herself with furrowed eyebrows, "I could have ended up in the mafia territory…"

Now turning around to leave as quickly as she could, Alice found her eyes widening at the sight of what looked to be a furry pink tube dangling in front of her face.

"Wha…?" She lowly breathed out with confused eyes.

At the end of it was a golden charm that vaguely looked like a fish's skeleton, but Alice didn't have much time to see it as the thing gave a swish.

Instinctively, her gaze followed upward to detect the source of it. Her eyes came upon a branch right above her and due to its thickness, her sight was obscured.

"Psst, over here."

Blinking, her body impulsively followed the source of the voice and she turned around once again, this time when she did, her entire vision was overtaken with the sight of another person that hung their upper down from the tree branch above.

"Ah!" Alice shrieked out in surprise, her hands defensively moving in front of her while she frantically attempted to back away, but in the process her feet was caught beneath one of the tree's uprooted roots and her body was sent crashing to her butt.

Pain executed throughout her bottom and she winced while moving on of her hands to rub at her head that was now beginning to develop an ache.

"Haha, your senses are way off!"

The voice was very mischievous, so much so that Alice allowed one of her eyes to crack open so she could catch a better sight of the male.

It was a boy who didn't look anymore than a year older than her, his hair was fuchsia pink and it was brushed over the left side of his face in a bang, making his other eye completely obscure from her vision. Admittedly, his appearance on its own was pretty noticeable, but not as much as the things growing out of his body.

On top of his head, matching the same exact color as his hair were a pair of cat ears, both of which had a couple of golden piercings in them.

Alice couldn't even contain her gasp as her eyes then moved to marvel at his tail while the boy flipped himself upward to stand up on the branch.

He leaned against the bark of it and watched down at her impishly, "I thought for sure you'd hear my chains while I was following you, but you're pretty deaf."

It took her a moment to catch herself before she crossly looked up at him, "Is it really necessary to insult me?" She mumbled through gritted teeth as he now lazily slid down to take a seat on his perch.

"Didn't mean to insult you. You seemed pretty tense on your own after you had that self-motivated monologue back there." He gave a snicker at the end of his words and although she was at first puzzled at what he was talking about, it took a few seconds for it to register in her brain.

"Y-you were stalking me!?" She questioned wide eyed. The blush that threatened to appear on her cheeks was completely from embarrassment.

God, she hoped she didn't unconsciously do anything too embarrassing back there.

"Cats always creep on their prey from the shadows." He winked at her charismatically and Alice blankly watched back at him, "You don't even have to be in the shadows because you're creeping me out enough right now as it is."

It was only until after her words that the full meaning behind his sentence came to mind.

He had been following her and he just called her prey…

Had he been hunting her!?

"Why were you stalking me anyways?" She cautiously inquired with a step back.

Shapeshifters were things like werewolves… Though the guy didn't look like he was all too dangerous, it was very possible that he was carnivorous. His punk clothes with all those chains didn't exactly scream _'Don't worry, I don't eat humans.'_

The idea of that gave her chills and she was very much prepared to turn around and bolt out of there.

After her words he let out a short laugh before he stood back up on his feet before he proceeded to jump down from the tree and Alice would be lying if she said she wasn't amazed at how he landed on his feet so nimbly before his stance became more erect.

"I was on my way to the Amusement Park and I heard you talking to yourself. Originally, I was just going to approach you, but then I noticed your scent…" He grinned at her and Alice found herself a bit startled by how sharp his canines appeared to be, "Since you smell so good, I decided to make my own little game and trail you from the trees until you noticed. Unfortunately, you never noticed." He stated before walking over to her.

Alice found herself frozen in place while his hand gripped a bit of her hair before he moved closer and she was capable of feeling him inhaling right near her neck, "Your scent is really good! Like nothing I've ever encountered before!"

Grunting, she took a step back while he curiously watched her, "I… I think it's because I'm a human…" Alice shakily admitted and she prayed at that moment that he wouldn't turn into a wolf and decide to eat her right then and there.

Unlike her negative thoughts, his eyes grew wide in astonishment, "A human!?" He questioned loudly and Alice nodded her head slowly.

"Whoa! That's so cool!" His grin grew wider while he took another step toward her, "My name's Boris and I am Underland's friendly, wandering, freeloading Cheshire Cat. It's nice to meet you female human who has a name but I don't know yet so I hope you tell me right after I finish this sentence."

Unable to stop herself from cracking a small giggle, Alice now found herself growing more comfortable, "My name is Alice… Alice Liddell."

"So, Alice, why were you peeking out at people? You were heading for the Amusement Park, right? It's right up ahead you know." He informed with a nod causing her to sigh.

"I was actually looking for the Castle of Hearts, but I guess I got lost along the way."

Boris' face contorted up in bewilderment, "The Castle? Why were you headed there?"

"I need to talk to Peter White." At the mere mention of his name she could feel some of her hairs stand up in irritation while her fist clenched, "God, I can't wait to punch him a good one in the nose…" She muttered beneath her breath.

"_Peter White? _Why would you wanna talk to that guy?" Boris questioned in pure disbelief, however, before Alice could respond his hand was grabbing at her wrist, "If you're planning on becoming cremated early, then at least spend time at the Amusement Park before your ashes are sent flying!"

Alice blinked as she suddenly found herself being pulled ahead.

When she managed to find the words in herself, she attempted to pull out of his hold, "W-what!? Wait a minute! I can't just—"

She found her words coming to an abrupt halt from the moment the two made it onto the main pathway to the Amusement Park entrance.

Her eyes were now looking at other people that were walking in the same direction and she felt nothing but panic and confusion enter her body.

None of the people had eyes.

Some visibly had animal ears, cat ears, dog ears, wolf ears, and tails to match, hell, some even had little bird _wings, _but not a single person had eyes.

Despite this, it was obvious that no one had trouble seeing.

Horrified, Alice's spare hand slapped over her mouth before she turned ahead to look at the back of Boris' head while they continued jogging their way to the Park entrance.

He wasn't at all disturbed by it and even he had eyes like her…

So was it possible that that was normal…?

As they made it to the gates, Alice found herself nervously moving closer to the fuchsia haired male while they skipped ahead in line to make it through.

"Welcome back, Boris!" A few of the workers exclaimed to the male that grinned at them, his grip on Alice not wavering.

They didn't have eyes either…

"We should ride a couple of roller coasters first!" Boris exclaimed after Alice politely took a map from one of the greeters.

Interacting with them up close wasn't as scary as she thought it'd be. Her eyes remained locked on the greeter that turned away from her and went to offer another map to a family that just walked in. He had wolf ears and though she knew that more than likely made him a werewolf…

The ears were kind of cute.

Wait. No. She shouldn't be thinking like that!

On full moons, that guy would turn into a monster and rip her to shreds! There was nothing cute about that!

Shaking her head clear of those thoughts, she shakily gazed down at the map in her hands of the Park's layout.

Why was she even looking at it? She really shouldn't even be here… She had to go to Peter to find out how to get home.

"Alice, Alice, Alice!"

Boris pulled at her arm easily gaining her attention curiously, "Uh… What?"

"I know exactly what to take you on first, heh. Its super fun, you'll love it. Let's get going!" He grinned, his hold on her was so solid that she could only squeak while she was moved ahead.

He didn't get ten steps before he stopped and Alice blinked her eyes,

She prepared to question what was wrong, but right as the thought came to mind another voice hit her ears.

"So that's where you've been, Boris. Haven't seen you in a while."

Alice curiously glanced around the boy ahead of her in order to see the newcomer and her eyes immediately took in the sight of an older man with his brown hair pulled into a braid that was dressed in a yellow jacket and suit, a color similar to what the workers had been wearing.

Skeptically, she allowed herself to hide behind Boris a bit while she continued to observe him cautiously.

He didn't have any animal ears or tail like all the other workers and he had eyes… So was definitely different.

"I saw you yesterday." Boris bluntly informed the man that let out a laugh, "Is that so? Feels like longer!"

Alice put a thoughtful hand to her mouth.

He didn't have wings either… If he was affiliated with Amusement Park but had no shapeshifter features, what was he?

"Oh, what's this? You have a girl with you?"

With his words, Alice found her eyes widening as Boris now stepped out of the way, leaving her at full view of the stranger ahead.

Now suddenly conscious of herself, Alice shyly gave a smile and a wave before Boris nodded his head with a grin, "Yup! She's a human! Doesn't she smell good?"

"A human!?"

Clearing her throat, she nodded his way politely, "Yes, my name is Alice. It's nice to meet you!"

His shock was very similar to Boris' and he now put a large smile on his face, "That's certainly amazing! It's been a very long time since a human's entered Underland! I suppose that explains your scent... It's very enticing and enthralling, might I add."

"Erm, thank you?"

"Way to creep her out, Old Man."

Giving Boris an agitated look, he returned her gaze to her more pleasantly, "Don't worry, that was a compliment. My name is Gowland and I'm the owner of the Amusement Park." He stated with a nod that made Alice's eyes become filled with wonder.

"Ah… You're the owner so you're a shapeshifter, right? If you don't mind me asking, what kind are you?"

Both men curiously watched at her before Gowland scratched at his stubbled chin, "Haha! It's nice that you're curious! After all, since I don't have those lame animal attributes like the others, it truly makes me seem more powerful, doesn't it!?"

His tone was arrogant and Alice tilted her head to the side, "Huh?"

Dully, Boris sent him an annoyed gaze, "Just because we have a human here doesn't mean it gives you permission to show off." He then turned to Alice with pursed lips, "The Old Man's a lycan."

"Lycan?" She instantly droned back in perplexity.

"It's a rare breed of werewolf that can transform at will instead of depending on the moon or nighttime in general." He sighed with folded arms while Gowland gave a loud laugh and slung his arm around Boris' shoulder,

"Boris is just upset that he has to carry his ridiculous cat ears all the time whether he likes it or not while I don't."

"My ears aren't ridiculous! They proudly show what species I am because I'm not ashamed unlike _you_, you sell out!"

"I am not a sell out!"

"Whatever you say, sell out."

"Grr… You annoying little—"

"Wow, that's really cool!" Alice intervened when it seemed as though things were beginning to pick up in terms of intensity.

Both males turned back to her and she inwardly gave a sigh of relief, "Where I'm from we don't have names for these kinds of things… If you're not a werewolf, we'll just call you a shapeshifter."

"So this whole time you've been calling me a shapeshifter in your head? That's insulting." Boris remarked with a slight pout to his lips, "For your own future reference and inner monologue, I am a werecat."

Alice took in the information with a nod, "I see, I see…"

It seemed as though they had their own system set up in terms of everything. She had to watch what she said before she offended someone because even if Boris didn't appear that insulted despite his words, if she triggered the wrong person she'd probably end up as someone's dinner.

She had to let out a sigh. Her smell wasn't helping her either.

"So Alice," Gowland now spoke with a smile, "How have you been enjoying the Amusement Park so far?"

"We literally just got here. I was going to take her on the Ripper coaster." Boris explained with a nod, easily making Gowland give Alice a friendly look, "Ah, I see. Well, regardless, I hope you enjoy your time here and you're very much welcome to stay here as long as you want!"

His offering certainly was warmer than what Julius had given her.

Waving off at him, Alice beamed, "Thank you for the offer, but I'm staying with Julius until I go home and I plan on going home really soon."

"The Clock Maker? He actually let you—"

Before Boris could finish, Gowland now let out a rather dramatic sigh as he now held a violin in his hand.

Alice watched at him in confusion while she attempted to think of where he pulled it out from and Boris appeared to be tensing up greatly, "Old Man, put the weapon of mass destruction down." He carefully voiced out causing Alice to look at him dumbly, "It's just a violin…" She whispered over to him.

"It's the instrument of the devil." Boris murmured back at her seriously.

"In my world violins are used to play music. What the heck are they used for here?"

"Same thing. It's just that the Old Man's music is used to send you to hell earlier than you would want."

"What?"

"I suppose that I should play you a song to officially welcome you to Underland! It's a new song I recently made, I hope you like it!" Gowland exclaimed loudly, catching both teens' attention. He fixed the violin in its proper position with his bow in hand to strum at the strings.

Still confused, Alice could only watch as Boris' hands shot upward to his ears.

Why was he—

_SCREECH!_

"A-ah!" Alice cried out painfully as both of her hands moved to cover her ears as the head reeling screeching noise made it her brain. Her whole body seemed to vibrate from the sound that continuously came while coupled with what she was barely able to make out as Gowland's singing and her brain frantically wept for escape from the pain that attacked at it.

The music was actually hurting her!

"Make it stop!" The brunette exclaimed as desperately as she could in between her moans.

If this was how God planned on having her die, he was truly a cruel and merciless being.

"For fuck's sake, Merry-Go-Round! You can't play! Stop it, damn it!" Boris hollered in a way that was barely past the volume of the violin.

Alice squinted her eyes open to look at the shapeshifter that still covered his ears, his body tensed and trembling, no doubt from the same agony Alice was experiencing.

Even though he hadn't breached the barrier of the music, Gowland still heard him and he paused from his playing, something that Alice could have cried so many tears of happiness from while she dropped to her knees on the floor in relief.

Her ears were still incredibly sensitive but she was just happy that the torture was over.

"_What _did you just call me?"

Alice found her concern with her own well being momentarily gone at the words that were coldly spoken by the still standing older man ahead of the both of them.

Watching at how fiercely his demeanor had changed actually made her a bit afraid.

He looked so scary…

Boris didn't appear the least bit intimidated while he glared at him, "You need to stop fucking with that thing! It's literally the embodiment of all the pain and suffering in this damn country!"

"You called me Merry-Go-Round just now, didn't you, Boris?"

"Um…" Alice barely managed to voice out as Gowland's body began to visibly quiver.

At first the sight was hardly noticeable but gradually, it started to intensify and Alice felt her inner instincts beginning to pick up while she fearfully watched him.

Without warning, Boris grabbed her by one of her wrists and pulled her up to her feet. Still a bit slow with how quick he was moving, Alice clumsily got up and began running with the male that was now sprinting away from the Amusement Park owner swiftly.

Finding her voice, she glanced back over her shoulder at the man that still stood shaking violently now, "I-Is he okay!?" She worriedly asked before turning back ahead to the boy that held her.

Boris let out a loud cackle, his steps not slowing as he turned a sharp corner, "Of course he is! But if we stick around, _we_ won't be!"

"Is he having a seizure or—"

An ear piercing roar rippled throughout the air and Alice's teal eyes grew.

The sound managed to weave its way to her heart and she felt her blood chill at how loud and close the sound seemed to be.

It had come from behind them… Practically as though it came from the same spot she and Boris had been in with Gowland only a couple moments ago.

"Nah, he just has anger issues." Boris snickered as they finally came to a stop.

Fearfully, Alice watched up at him, her breathing still heavy from the amount of running they did, "He transformed into a lycan… Didn't he?" She reluctantly questioned causing the boy to nod his head.

That was actually really scary even though she hadn't witnessed it, she could only imagine what it would have looked like to view it all.

She was grateful for not looking back again when she had the chance while they were running… Watching someone turn into a lycan didn't exactly sound pleasing on the eyes…

Not only that, but if Boris hadn't grabbed her and ran with her, she would have been stuck there with an angry shapeshifter and probably mauled.

"He's always so prideful about being able to transform day or night. Feh, he's so full of himself when all it takes is one little name to get him riled up and transforming." Boris distastefully stated with pursed lips.

Alice dully watched him, "You two don't get along much, do you?"

"Eh? We actually do. He lets me live here after all. It's just that the only way to get him to stop playing that demon's tool is to piss him off until he transforms." He fitted his hands in his pockets, a grin coming to his face, "Pissing him off is way too easy."

"He's not going to hunt you down while he's transformed, is he?"

"Nah. But even if he did, he'd never catch me, that's for sure." Boris nonchalantly remarked and though Alice still had some anxiety in her system with the idea of a pissed off lycan being somewhere in the park after them, the Cheshire Cat gripped her shoulders, "Anyways, let's go ride something!"

Right as he began to walk forward, two new voices called over to them.

"Boris! Brother, look there he is!"

"Finally! We've been looking everywhere! Boris!"

Boris' steps stopped now and both he and Alice moved their heads in the direction of the calls.

Alice watched on curiously as two young boys now waved over at them hugely, their steps bringing them close to the pair quicker than Alice anticipated.

Dimly, she reminded herself that she was the only human there as the two, now seen distinguishable as twins due to their strikingly similar looks, now bounded up toward Boris with grins on their faces.

"We're here to discuss territory negotiations!"

"Yeah, but we managed to sneak away from Boss and the stupid rabbit, so let's go ride stuff!"

"Territory negotiations again?" Boris questioned lazily, now releasing Alice to approach them, "Didn't you guys do them just the other day?"

"We did," The blue eyed one began, "But it was a full moon so you know that didn't end well." The red suited one finished with a laugh.

Boris nodded knowingly, "I guess that's why you decided to reschedule it to the morning? I'm surprised. I never thought you guys could wake up this early."

Alice awkwardly stood behind him, her eyes observantly eyeing both of the two newcomers in silence.

She had to say, seeing them more up close took her breath away. Both of them were so incredibly good looking, it kind of embarrassed her how much she thought so.

Reassuringly, she told her mind she didn't have any shotacon tendencies and that she genuinely just thought that in terms of appearance, the two of them were absolutely stunning.

She'd never seen a pair of kids their age look so, for the lack of better word, _beautiful_.

"Hey, is she a friend of yours, Boris?" One of them questioned curiously as he came to notice her.

She felt her heartbeat momentarily pick up when she locked eyes with the other when they all turned around to her. Quickly, she turned away a bit meek at the attention she was receiving.

That was a strange feeling she got…

"Oh, right! Guys, this is Alice! She's a human!" He explained with a grin that immediately made the two boys go wide eyed,

"Whoa!" "Seriously!?"

"Alice, these two are Dee and Dum." He pointed at each of them respectively and Alice put a friendly smile on her face with a nod.

Attempting to push back her body's odd sense of alertness, she took a step toward them, "It's nice to meet you both." Her eyes danced around their form in search of some sort of animal attribute and when her results came up short she blinked, "Are you two lycans as well?"

Boris blanched, his expression faltering severely as the two boys walked up to her with smiles on their faces.

"_Lycans? _Alice, you couldn't be anymore more far off, they're—"

"You smell really good." Dee informed her with his blue eyes shimmering into hers hypnotically.

Boris' voice dulled into nothing while she slowly nodded down at the two males that now clung to both of her arms.

Dum wore a matching expression, his irises just as enticing that she couldn't find it in herself to look away, "We bet you taste just as good."

Once again, her head nodded and Alice was beginning to feel her own body becoming heavy as nothing but Dee and Dum filled her senses.

All other noises were gone, all other sights were gone, and she couldn't even feel anything except for their hands on her arms.

"So how about it, big sis?" Dee sang out lightly with a small laugh,

"Do we have permission to drink from you?" Dum continued.

His words made her mind wake up from the dream-like state it had once been in though her body refused to act and get out of their arms.

Against what she wanted, her head gave a nod and she felt her heart beat begin to pick up incredibly fast as both boys' faces moved to either sides of her neck.

They weren't lycans.

They were _vampires_.

Fearfully, she willed her body to move, but as though it were stuck in time, it remained glued in place and she felt tears of frustration threatening to make their way to her half-lidded eyes that were still stuck staring at toward the floor blankly.

The feel of their teeth grazing the skin of her neck sent a shiver down her spine and she prepared to feel the sensation of their bite when all else seemed hopeless.

It was going to hurt, she could just tell.

"You dumb kids need to stop goofing off, especially when we're in enemy territory!"

All at once, the weight bearing presences that had been on her shoulders disappeared in an instant and when they did, Alice found feeling and motion returning to her body.

Gasping for air, she immediately took several steps backward with both of her hands protectively flying to her neck before she looked upward.

The two twins were still in the spot she'd just been standing at, their eyes pointed downward where two men were beginning to approach.

One of them wore an immensely irritated expression on his face while he glared at them fiercely, "Stop running off when we're on the job!" He hit them both on top of the head in aggravation.

The immediate thing Alice came to notice about him was the large pair of brown rabbit ears that rested on his wavy blond hair. His face was another thing; even though he appeared angry, he was very attractive, but more manish unlike the twins that had more of a child-like beauty about them.

Beside him, she found herself hitching a breath at the second man, one with dark hair and a rather large top hat that was decorated with roses and cards. Even from her distance, she could tell he was just as, if not, more stunning in terms of looks than the other three.

But that wasn't what caught her attention…

He seemed familiar…

The twins clutched their heads painfully, "We're only kids, you stupid rabbit! We deserve a break from time to time!"

"Yeah! Besides, we were only getting a quick snack from big sis!"

With their words, it seemed as though everyone turned to her now and Alice found herself in an incredibly embarrassing situation as the male she had once been staring at caught her looking.

Her face heated up slightly and as ashamed as she was, she couldn't find it in herself to look away.

He was so good looking and though she was sure she'd remember anyone that looked as gorgeous as him, she couldn't remember…

His piercing blue eyes seemed to look completely through her and she could feel the hypnotic feeling she had once endured with the twins threaten to take her over as she stared at him openly.

"I don't believe we've met before."

The raven haired man's voice was as enthralling as his appearance and Alice couldn't have said she was surprised.

Wordlessly, she watched as he took a couple more steps forward until he was before her.

Bowing slightly, he took one of her hands; his eyes still not leaving hers before he kissed the top of it quickly, something that made Alice's whole body threaten to shake in embarrassment.

Suddenly, she felt herself become that much more insecure about her appearance.

"I am Blood Dupre. It's an honor to meet you, young miss."

"I… Uh… I'm Alice." She quietly stated, now feeling more power to her system, she tore her eyes from his and grabbed her hand back, her eyes moving to the floor.

With the way he was dressed and how he spoke, she wouldn't be surprised if he was some sort of vampire aristocrat.

He seemed so classy and there she was gawking like some sort of peasant… He probably thought she was weird.

But she honestly couldn't shake the feeling that she saw his face somewhere else before…

"She's a human!" Both boys exclaimed in unison, "We just wanted to see what they tasted like!" Dee said while his brother nodded, "They're very rare after all!"

Alice felt her face falter, "I-I'm not some sort of wine that you can just sip up whenever you want!"

The two pouted at her sadly and she found slight regret at her words right after.

They were so cute…

Boris now decided to speak up again with a sigh, "She smells good to me too, but you don't see me gnawing off her legs to see what she tastes like."

Not really taking his comparison too well, Alice's eye gave a twitch while she stepped away from him.

"You two should know better than to just go feeding off of a human like that." Blood's authoritative voice seemed to silence everyone in the group and even Alice found herself straightening up at his stoic tone.

She watched him curiously before the blond man now perked up her way, "If you're human that explains why your blood smells so good!" The look of wonder on his face kind of caught her by surprise, "You said your name is Alice, right?"

She nodded.

"My name is Elliot and I'm sorry that these two brats gave you trouble." Right after his words he hit them both on top of the head once more, earning pain-filled cries from the twins. He flashed her a smile that she couldn't help but return, "Won't happen again, I promise."

"We didn't mean to hurt her!"

"Stop trying to make us seem like bad people!"

"It was nothing really." She laughed off lightly when the twins both gave her sullen, apologetic expressions.

Even though they were vampires… She actually felt strangely relaxed around them…

They weren't nearly as scary as she thought.

"Hey, Blood, wouldn't it be great if she came back to the mansion with us? Maybe she could live there too?" Elliot questioned his boss brightly and Alice willed herself not to look over at the man because she didn't want to be trapped under his spell once more.

Elliot turned back to her, his face giving a wide grin, "I'm sure you'd love it there, Alice. You should come back with us."

His fangs were now all too visible beneath the sunlight and Alice unconsciously took a step back while she stared at his sparkling teeth in slight fear.

Sure, now she felt relaxed around them, but if she were stuck in a giant mansion alone with them, especially at night…

Just the thought of it was simply terrifying.

"A-ahaha…" She laughed weakly, "I already have a place to stay, sorry. Thanks for the offer though."

"Aww!" Dee and Dum whined while Elliot frowned.

"You wouldn't happen to know where the Owner is, would you?" Alice vaguely saw Blood question in Boris' direction.

Boris' ear twitched while he held his chin, "Last I saw him was near the fountain by the entrance."

"I see." Blood's cane tapped the floor while he gave his three subordinates a brief look, "Come along now." With his words they began to walk away and right as he did, Blood glanced over his shoulder at Alice with a smile on his lips, "Young miss, I really do implore you to visit my mansion at the very least. I'll be sure to make your time there as pleasurable as possible."

Alice watched him take his leave in stunned silence, her heartbeat finally slowing when they were out of sight.

"So, he's the leader of the Hatter territory, right?" Alice sighed out to Boris who scratched his cheek, "Yup… Blood 'Mad Hatter' Dupre, leader of the Hatter Coven… He's here to do land negotiations with the Old Man right now actually… Which is why I think it's best if you go."

As charming as he had seemed to her, she reminded herself that he had to be dangerous, though the feeling of familiarity she got from looking at him couldn't be shaken off.

Taking hold of her hand, he began leading her away and Alice bit her bottom lip, "I thought vampires burned in sunlight, or at least that's what my world always believed."

Boris snorted, "That'd make them such wimps. Wouldn't be as fun fighting them if that were the case. Here, vampires just get weaker in the daytime. A lot of their powers are really dulled down and they can't use certain abilities… Eh, all except for head vampires."

"You mean like Blood?"

"Correcto, Miss Aliceo."

Alice took in his words with a nod.

If she wanted to survive, at least knowing the basics was important.

Soon, the two found their way to a minor exit where Boris briefly explained to the worker who Alice was before they slipped their way out onto the pathway that was surrounded by forest,

"Alright, so whenever the Old Man and Blood interact, they basically go nuts and make fights break out everywhere." Boris explained easily while Alice watched at him dumbfounded, "You couldn't resist the twins' charm in the _daytime, _I doubt you'll survive a lycan-vampire encounter between those two. It usually gets pretty intense." His face broke out into a grin that truthfully made her feel uneasy.

"You wanted to get to the Castle of Hearts, right?"

Now remembering her original cause, Alice inwardly hit herself for forgetting so quickly before she nodded at him eagerly.

"Well, just take this path. It'll lead you to the Clock Tower, so just go across that territory and take the pathway that continues in parallel to this one. It should honestly take you right in the Castles' territory, no problem at all." The Cat explained with a nod before he glanced over his shoulder, "I'd walk you there myself, but I'm really not in the mood. Besides…"

In the distance, a loud roar that was familiar as the same lycan one Alice had heard earlier shook through her mind.

Nervously, she took a single step backward with a wince.

Boris' grin became wider as he turned to her, "I think staying here is more fun." He turned around in order to return to the exit and he gave her a wave, "If the Prime Minister doesn't make you an Alice-kebob you really need to come back here and visit!"

Another howl was heard and Boris now began racing back in.

Alice dully watched until he disappeared back in before she turned around on her heel and sighed heavily.

Her hand slipped into her apron pocket to clutch her vial tightly.

Taking a deep breath she began her trek onward.

She'd definitely get there this time.

**-.-**

**Next chapter we take it to the Castle of Hearts to meet up with the relatively unstable elemental gang.**

**Very sorry if this chapter seemed close to the manga, sigh, next chapter differs more so I hope it's more original there.**

**Hearing your thoughts through a review would be great :) It motivates me to update faster!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for the reviews :)**

**-.-**

Alice found that Boris' directions were right and when the sight of the large castle had been in sight she had gone sprinting up the hill as quickly as she could.

The ascent was a bit steep at some points but the happiness of finally meeting her destination kept her going strongly.

At one point she came upon a maze that apparently separated her from the large building ahead and the only thing she could do was shoot out a quick prayer that she'd make it through without much difficulty. The maze held her back in terms of time, but with some kind of brightening luck she made it through.

Now, the Castle entrance was right above her. She just had some more steps to go up and the entrance would be right there before her eyes.

Her mind was already formulating different strategies on how to get Peter White to take her home. If violence didn't work, she supposed she could try some sort of Psychology mind tricks. Lorina used to talk to her about those kinds of things but she never really listened. To say she regretted zoning out during those times now was a huge understatement.

Huffing for a breath as she began walking forward, she found her eyes widening when her gaze landed on the two guards up ahead.

Both of them didn't have eyes like the people at the Amusement Park and they appeared to be dressed as soldiers and the closer she approached, she came to see they both their outfits were designed similarly to the front of a card from a deck.

When her steps were that much closer to getting inside of the building, the two men dropped their large golden spears that held red hearts toward the end right in front of her face.

Smiling, she tried to give off as nonthreatening a vibe as she could, "U-uh… Did I do something wrong…?"

"State your business here." The one with the six on his chest stated firmly and his companion nodded and Alice came to notice their appearances were strangely similar.

Alice took a step back, hoping it'd make their serious expression lessen before she cleared her throat, "Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude or anything!" Biting her bottom lip she placed her arms behind her back, "I'm just here to see Peter White, the Prime Minister? I actually have business to discuss with him."

Her explanation made the men exchange at one another and Alice hoped they weren't planning on killing her with their spears or anything.

They both looked human really, unlike those from the Amusement Park with their obvious animal features or the Hatters that were all pale and strangely attractive… These people looked as normal as her.

What was it that the Castle of Hearts territory had?

Elementals?

She didn't even know what those were… Her world didn't have those as far as she knew.

"Should we let her through?"

"Lord White hasn't said anything about receiving a visitor, has he?"

"I can't remember."

"It's best we play it safe. If we give him an unexpected guest, it won't be pretty for any of us."

Alice blankly watched as the two dark haired men turned their attention back to her seriously.

"Sorry, ma'am, Master White hasn't informed us that he's expecting a guest." The one with the eight on his chest told her firmly and Alice grunted, her eyebrows furrowing, "You literally _just_ said you couldn't remember!"

"Did he invite you here?"

"Well, no, but—"

The one with the six hearts to his uniform moved his spear and Alice felt the ground beneath her rumble a bit before the land she stood on slid back suddenly, nearly knocking her off of her feet.

Surprised, she caught herself and looked up at them cautiously and as she did, she found the spear pointed in her direction steadily.

"Ma'am, its best you leave before we're forced to take action."

Eyes widening in surprise, Alice shook her head, "No, wait, please! You don't understand! Peter didn't invite me here but it's really important that I speak with him! Please, I— AH!"

Her words ended in a shriek as she found the ground she stood on abruptly moving once more, this time sliding her back toward the steps that she had just ascended to get up there. Unable to find balance, she fell on her bottom and she could only inwardly thank her poofy dress for absorbing most of the fall.

Wincing, she watched ahead at the two men as one of them put his hand back down to his side and from there Alice was able to put it all together.

He'd just moved the earth...

"Leave now." They commanded and the brunette couldn't help but notice how their similar voices worked in such a complete unison that it was nearly impossible to notice two people were speaking instead of one.

Alice frowned though she quickly rose to her feet and obeyed, her steps taking her back down the numerous steps she had just climbed.

She didn't want to anger them. It was obvious that the power difference between them was great and she didn't want to have a repeat of what happened with her and Julius when they first met.

Sighing as she made it about midway to the bottom of the plateau, she found herself taking a seat on the ground tiredly.

Honestly, she'd been so close to getting to Peter…

But she should have known getting inside of a Castle to see a Prime Minister wouldn't be _that _easy… She was a nobody here; of course just showing up out of nowhere and getting an easy way in would be basically impossible. Not only that, if she tried sneaking in she'd probably be seen as an assassin or something if she got caught and they'd probably kill her.

Elementals… Going by that name and how the guards at the door had moved the earth under her feet, she could assume that meant they could literally control the elements of nature.

That certainly wasn't good for her.

Groaning, she placed her face into her hands.

She was never going to get home at this rate.

"Why me?" She moaned lowly and right after she finished her sentence, she found something moving at the side of her eye that nearly made her jump in surprise.

Turning her head, she blinked at the sight of what appeared to be flower slowly growing beside her.

A low cracking noise accompanied it as the thing continued to sprout, but aside from the rapid speed that it was blooming it, the strangest thing was that it was near transparent…

Eyes widening, she watched at it cautiously as it ceased its movement, now easily identifiable as a single daisy.

Unable to fight the curious side of her, her hand reached out to touch it and the instant she did, she recoiled in surprise at how cold it was.

It felt like ice?

Alice glanced around herself in confusion.

Maybe that was normal in this world? But there was no other flower but this one around, so what was it?

Her thoughts came to a stop when she made eye contact with a brown haired man now walking up the slope toward her.

"The flower's for you! Don't be shy, pick it!" He smiled at her warmly with a wave.

It now came to her attention that he had eyes, not only that but they were a bright red color that seemingly matched the large coat he had on.

Dumbly, she sat and watched up at him in silence as he approached.

"There's no need for you to cry. I'm sure whatever has you down will be solved eventually… Maybe, haha." He chuckled out while leaning down to peer at her in amusement.

Now catching herself, Alice felt her cheeks flush in slight embarrassment, "I wasn't crying!"

The man snickered, his hand reaching downward to pick up the flower and with how it was made entirely of ice, Alice half expected the stem to break under his grasp but it remained steady as he moved his hand outward as though to offer it to her.

He gave her a charming smile, "It was pretty obvious even from a distance that you were sulking. Don't worry; it's nothing to be embarrassed about. Just wipe your tears and smile, you're a strong girl." One of his eyes winked and Alice groaned.

Stubbornly, she turned her face to the side.

She wasn't in the mood to argue with a stranger, there was no point in even retorting.

When he seemed to sense that she wasn't going to accept his flower, he quickly crushed it in his gloved hands, "Ahh, so you're the cold type, I see. Perhaps too cold even for my daisy. Harsh."

"I'm not cold." Alice mumbled before returning her eyes to him reluctantly, she pursed her lips, "Sorry for being rude, I'm just really stressed out because nothing seems to be going my way…"

He smiled at her kindly, "Don't worry, it's fine!"

Alice gave him an apologetic gaze with a sigh before she stuck out her hand in offering to shake politely, "Let's start over. My name's Alice Liddell and I guess I should say I'm a human because that little fact seems to be important to everyone I introduce myself to."

The male's eyes immediately grew wide, "Wait, seriously!? A human!?"

The girl gave a yelp of surprise when suddenly both of his hands grasped over hers strongly and when he did so, she felt a bit of static shock run through her body. Her eyes looked up into his disbelieving red irises that were easily shimmering with a plethora of emotions.

"Y-yeah."

"That's insane! I knew you had a weird aura about you, but I thought you were some kind of witch or something! This is so cool! My first human!" He exclaimed in exhilaration and Alice couldn't help but laugh at how childishly excited he seemed.

At least she didn't have to worry about him drinking her blood or eating her leg…

Maybe Elementals were the safer bunch when it came to Underland.

"I'm really not cool. I can't do anything except smell good apparently." She attempted to reason though he shook his head, "You don't understand how amazing you are! Wow, my name's Ace!" He introduced, finally releasing her hands.

Alice smiled at him, "It's nice to meet you, Ace."

"I'm Knight of Hearts here at the Castle!" He explained cheerfully and Alice found her eyes sparkling as he continued, "I was supposed to be going back, but hanging with you seems way more fun."

"No, no! Going back to the Castle is great!" Alice flailed her hands in front of her body rapidly causing Ace to watch at her curiously, "Please help me! I was trying to get into the Castle earlier, but since I'm basically a no one, the guards wouldn't let me in… Would you be able to get me inside?"

The brunet tilted his head to the side, "Why would you want to go inside the Castle?"

Sighing, Alice found her inner frustrations beginning to manifest slowly, "I have a bone to pick with the Prime Minister."

After her words Ace blinked his eyes before placing a hand to his chin thoughtfully and Alice held her breath in anticipation for his answer.

"Hm… Well, I don't see any reason not to help! Come on, Alice!"

Unable to hide her grin, Alice found herself brightening as she began going back up the steep slope beside the taller man, a new sense of excitement in her stomach.

The whole time they walked, Ace was questioning her on her humanity and she couldn't help but be a bit amused at how interested he seemed. It reminded her vaguely of a little puppy trying to chase a light on a wall from a flashlight.

Not only that, but he appeared so normal compared to everyone else she'd met so far and considering how he was an Elemental, she didn't exactly have to be constantly fearful for her life around him.

When they passed the front guards again, she couldn't help but notice how both sent her apologetic looks when she walked in with Ace and she simply smiled and nodded at them.

She couldn't exactly be angry at them for only doing their job after all.

The interior of the Castle was like that of a fairy tale… True to its name, there were hearts wherever you looked and Alice couldn't help but become the slightest bit captivated by it all.

They turned a corner and Alice found her eyes widening a little at the sight of a crowd of people up ahead.

Even with the distance between them it was very easy to see that there was some form of commotion occurring.

Her steps came to a stop and she found herself watching ahead with wide eyes.

There were a couple of maids that seemed to be scattering about in an attempt to pick up papers that were scattered about on the floor.

Ace allowed his steps to halt when he noticed Alice had paused and he looked back at her curiously, "What's wrong?"

Alice anxiously moved her gaze over to Ace, "Is something happening up there?"

"Huh?" He questioned with raised brows and Alice automatically raised her hand to point down the hallway silently. Ace's crimson irises trailed in the direction of her digits and when he came upon the sight of all the faceless up ahead scurrying he scratched the back of his head, "Oooh. That doesn't look pretty."

"Ah, should we help them? It looks like they could use an extra hand."

The brunet turned to look at her and when Alice felt his stare she returned her eyes to him and in that instant that she caught his gaze, his smile seemed to broaden before he nodded, "Sure! That sounds like fun!"

Not exactly sure how that could be considered fun, Alice slowly nodded her head before she began an awkward little jog-run in the direction of the little chaos.

When she made it over she quickly stooped down to pick up some of the stray papers and she turned to one of the maids with a kind smile, "I hope it isn't a bother that I'm helping."

The raven haired woman brightened up instantly, "Not at all, not at all! Thank you, thank you!"

"If you don't mind me asking, what happened? There are papers everywhere!" She exclaimed, her hands still attempting to collect as many of the white sheets as she could without giving them wrinkles.

Vaguely, as she worked, her eyes glanced over some of the text on it and she couldn't help but realize that it all sounded to be really official, political agendas.

"These are the documents the Castle of Hearts is to turn in for the next territory meeting!" Another maid beside her frantically answered, her expression despite her lack of eyes was clearly seen as fearful while she continued to diligently neaten the papers in her grasp.

"We were meant to turn it in to His and Her Majesty, but now this will make us late!"

"Her Majesty will not be pleased!"

"Heads will roll if Her Majesty sees this!"

Alice blinked her eyes as the four maids all began to worriedly speak at once about the repercussions that were sure to come from their clumsy blunder.

Suddenly, she felt a hand on her shoulder and when she glanced up she found her eyes meeting with Ace's.

"You look busy and I've got some stuff to do. I guess I'll catch you later?" He questioned curiously.

The brunette smiled and nodded, "Yeah! Thank you again for helping me, Ace! It means a lot! I'm in debt to you, I suppose." She lightly remarked causing him to grin widely before he clenched one of his hands into a fist and put it to his chest over his heart and gave a bow.

"I am a Knight, it's what I do. I couldn't leave a girl out there crying."

"I wasn't crying!"

He raised his head and sent her a wink, "Anyways, let's meet up sometime later and play!"

As he began walking away, Alice couldn't help but silently laugh despite the slightly exasperated look she held.

He had to be in his early twenties or so, why was he using the word play like that? Unless he meant a board game or something similar…

Did Underland even have board games?

She couldn't imagine a bunch of monsters gathered around a board playing Candyland or Monopoly that was for sure.

"Oh, you're friends with Sir Ace?" One of the maids questioned her curiously as they all managed to collect all of the papers together.

Alice's blinked as she moved to transfer her stack onto the dark haired woman's, "Well, I just met him not too long ago outside of the Castle… He was nice enough to help me in my desperate time of need, so I suppose you can say so?"

She didn't want to go ahead considering herself as buddy-buddy with someone she just barely met. Though really, in this place she presumed having some kind of friend or ally was important lest she end up in someone's stomach or in a body bag.

Though really, out of everyone in Underland she had the pleasure—or displeasure, depending on how you looked at it, of meeting thus far, Ace was definitely her number one at the moment.

The only reason for that was probably because he wasn't a pervert and he didn't seem to have any species instinct to try to kill her.

"Incompetent! We cannot deal with such inept staff!"

A large '_boom_' sound accompanied the shout and Alice's steps came to a stop anxiously when she noticed the maids ahead of her cease their walk.

"Where are the Territory documents!? They were meant to arrive ages ago!"

Alice winced as another loud thud seemingly echoed throughout the halls and the sound of footsteps approaching filled the air.

Visibly, she could see the four women she was travelling with begin to grow increasingly fearful as evident from their trembles did nothing to help her own qualms as she grunted in the pit of her throat, her eyes trained in the direction of the hallway that all the women appeared to be facing.

She wanted to ask what was about to happen, but she found herself entirely tongue tied as a new set of people turned down into the hallway they were standing in.

The brunette's teal eyes grew considerably as she was now faced with the sight of a couple of soldiers, all faceless and identical in appearance to the same ones that had been outside and a new woman, who basically captivated her completely.

Dark purple hair that was pulled into ringlets, a large and frilly red and black gown, and on top of her head was a small little golden crown that was encrusted with what she could only assume to be jewels.

Even with the angry scowl on her lips, the woman ahead of her was the picture perfect definition of beautiful.

"We swear, we are the only one in this bloody Castle that has an ounce of intelligence to get work done. Hmph." She angrily barked over her shoulder as the soldiers stayed a few steps behind her with fretful expressions to their eyeless faces.

Alice wordlessly watched as the woman averted her attention back up ahead and her lavender saturated landed on the group of them down the hallway, her eyebrows seemed to knit downward in frustration, "So that's where the documents were."

"Y-yes, Your Majesty! We were on our way to deliver them to you!" The one that held the papers lightly squeaked out, an uneasy smile on her face while she nodded.

Her companions all appeared to share her composure as they all sweated lightly.

The woman frowned, "You made us wait far too long for these things. What could you all have possibly been doing?" The irritation in her tone was far too evident and it seemed as though all the maids standing around her were going to collapse under their quivers.

Alice apprehensively stood toward the back, her eyes unable to leave the older female up ahead that now seemed to notice her presence.

"What is this?"

The brunette found herself immediately straightening up beneath the woman's analytical gaze and she couldn't help the tense wave that entered her body as she did so.

She was obviously the Queen of the Castle and not only that, she didn't appear to be in her best mood.

"I… Uh…" She inwardly kicked herself for stumbling on her words at such a time as she watched at the woman who approached her so gracefully, "Hello!" She exclaimed in a pitch a bit higher than she would have liked.

The woman's red polished and manicured hand slid beneath her chin to raise it upward and Alice found her face heating up while she locked eyes with her.

Even up close there didn't seem to be a single flaw in her face. She was stunningly beautiful, nearly similar to the vampires except her beauty appeared more natural, for the lack of a better word. She supposed it made sense if she was Queen of the Elemental territory…

"You have a face and yet, we are positive we have not seen you before. Are you a new role holder?" She inquired with a brow arched upward.

Alice gulped down a growing lump in her throat while she attempted to find her words as she shook her head lightly, "I'm a human!" She explained, "I'm also sorry for intruding into your Castle, Your Majesty, I was just looking for Peter White and—"

"A human?"

The typical reaction that she had been getting from everyone all day seemed to strike the woman that watched down at her, nothing but fascination seen in her eyes while she placed one of her lightly tanned hands to her face skeptically.

Alice nodded her head causing the woman to let out a hum, "That should explain the aura you carry. This is interesting… Tell us, what is your name?"

"Um… Alice Liddell, Your Majesty." She respectfully answered.

"We see… Very well, Miss Liddell, we are the Queen of Hearts, Vivaldi. It is wonderful to meet your acquaintance."

Vivaldi… It sounded French? Either way it was pretty and suited her immensely.

Alice's face flushed even more while she tried her hardest not to break eye contact, "You can just call me Alice… I mean, if you want… I mean, I'm not telling you what to do or anything, it's just that Miss Liddell sounds so formal, my tutor used to call me that and ahh… I'm blabbing, aren't I? Sorry."

She half expected the woman to throw her into a dungeon for being disrespectful, but instead she received laughter.

Vivaldi's laugh was soft, completely different from how maximized her voice had been not too long ago and Alice curiously watched up at her as she turned her head over her shoulder to the maids with a new pleasant smile on her face, "Prepare the tea party table outside at once!"

Instantly at her command all of the workers immediately began running about with a 'Yes, Your Majesty.'

Alice blinked her eyes while the woman turned back to her with a glint in her eyes, "We must speak to one another over a short dinner, Alice. We are aware it is all on short notice, however, we are positive you will enjoy what our chef prepares for you regardless."

The brunette prepared herself to protest, her mind remembering her original mission to find Peter White, but she stopped herself when she felt a dull pain execute throughout her stomach.

She hadn't thought about it up until then, but she hadn't eaten anything since dinner time back in her world which had been over 24 hours ago. All day she had been on her trip around the land trying to get to the Castle.

Smiling broadly, she gripped the edge of her skirt before performing a small curtsey, "Your Majesty, it would be an honor if I could dine with you."

Vivaldi watched at her curiously, her lavender eyes shimmering in an emotion that Alice could only hope to perceive as interest. It took only a couple more seconds before she allowed one of her slender hands to make its way to her mouth and she released a gentle laugh once more, "Oh ho! How nice! You are adorable! We are quite pleased with this. Come along now, Alice. We will make sure your first Castle of Hearts meal is the finest meal yet."

Knowing that for the time being she at least one the favorable side of the Queen, Alice brightened up before taking in a deep breath and immediately going to follow after the regal woman at as much of a decent pace as she could manage, her stomach now apparently becoming fully awakened and growling lowly.

-.-

"So tell us, Alice, what possessed you to visit Underland?" Vivaldi questioned with a smile.

Alice didn't really catch the look, her focus instead mostly pinpointed on the sandwiches on her plate.

Vivaldi had said everything would be short noticed so Alice had honestly followed after her not expecting much, but when they arrived to the table out near the maze, she was stunned speechless by the amount of food there.

Everything looked so good, it made her stomach threaten to cry out like a dying seal, she nearly cried.

She couldn't believe she neglected her most basic human need her whole time there.

"Ah… I wasn't exactly looking to visit. I didn't even know this place existed until I was _kidnapped_." She put emphasis on the word right before she took a bite of her sandwich.

She could recall Lorina's way of eating the finger food, and she tried her hardest to replicate it, not at all wanting to appear like some uncultured barbarian in front of royalty. Though it was all so difficult because with her hunger she just wanted to stuff her face, lady etiquette and manners be damned, she was starving.

When she had first sat down and started eating she had admittedly been a bit cautious. It wasn't that she thought Vivaldi would poison her, but she didn't know if she'd end up eating something strange like someone's brain or kidney or something like that.

Though really, all the food was as identical to the food in her world, although it was obvious the meal in front of her was made for royalty with how everything had been prepared.

As she swallowed, she gave Vivaldi a tired look, "Basically, Peter White came out of nowhere and snatched me here."

"The White Rabbit kidnapped you? Why is that?" The Queen looked genuinely taken off guard and Alice sighed, her hand reaching out to take a sip of her tea.

The liquid burned her tongue and she tried her hardest to remain composed while she shrugged her shoulders, "I honestly don't know… That's why I came here, actually. To find him and get answers because he's the Prime Minister, right?"

Vivaldi nodded, "That's rather peculiar. Never would we have thought he would be the one to break the rules." She smirked slightly, "How amusing that the Caterpillar assisted him…"

Putting her tea cup back down, Alice smiled the elder woman's way kindly, "If you don't mind me asking, is there a way for me to request to speak to him at some point? I really need to try and get home."

Looking up at the sky it was sunset.

If she could get home right at that moment, it'd all be so great. She'd be able to head out trick-or-treating with both Edith and Lorina before it got too late.

"We shall send for a messenger so he may meet you out here." Vivaldi replied while nodding off at a soldier's direction. He bowed at her respectfully before making his way off.

Alice couldn't help the happy grin that came to her face as the faceless man disappeared past the rose hedges about them.

Taking a scone and stuffing it into her mouth without much thought, Alice picked up a napkin to wipe at the sides of her lips while Vivaldi released a longingly breath, "It has been a while since a human last entered Underland… They are said to be the catalyst for change, you know."

The brunette listened attentively.

"Outsiders, foreigners, strangers, even newcomers… Humans are described as those and are very rare to this world." Vivaldi gave a small sip to her tea, "With you here, things are sure to become very interesting."

Alice gave a small and sheepish laugh, "Oh, wow… Ur, well, I'm sorry, but I'm not some kind of revolutionary or anything if that's what you think. I'm really just your normal, plain and average girl? There's nothing particularly special about me."

"Regardless, it does not change your species and what you mean to our kind." Vivaldi gave her a smirk as a maid began pouring more tea into her cup, "You must stay at the Castle of Hearts during your time here in Underland. We can promise you the best hospitality there is to offer."

Looking down at her plate, Alice had to admit it sounded like a good deal.

Vivaldi was kind and so were the workers there… That greatly clashed with Julius' seemingly grouchy self that didn't appear to want anything to do with her…

Not only that, they weren't carnivorous or anything like that so she was pretty much safe to go around without worrying for her life.

A smile came to her face while she shook her head, "That sounds really tempting, but I'm not staying here long. I'm leaving tonight if I can, though if I can't then sur—"

Her words were drowned out abruptly by the sound of glass hitting against each other filled the air.

Eyes curious, Alice watched ahead as the maid that had been assisting the Queen took a couple of steps back, her hands flying to her mouth in horror, "Y-Your Majesty! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to! I-I-I!" Please forgive me!"

The tea that she had been pouring spilled and Alice couldn't help but frown at how the tea seemed to have made its way onto Vivaldi's gown.

She couldn't help the bit of second-hand embarrassment that hit her as she prepared to watch the maid get fired especially with how annoyed Vivaldi's face appeared to become.

The Queen of Hearts retrieved a napkin from the table and began to wipe herself, her eyebrows inclined downward in irritation as an awkward silence flew over the tea area.

"How troublesome." She voiced after a moment of quiet and Alice sympathetically frowned the maid's way.

Maybe she could find another job somewhere?

"Off with her head!"

_What?_

Vivaldi raised her hands upward to give a loud clap and Alice could only watch with confused wide eyes as the maid was grabbed by two nearby soldiers.

Off with her head? Was that a metaphor for something?

The dark haired woman was dragged away from the table and Alice found herself stunned into silence at how little resistance she had, her face showing nothing but mortification on her situation, yet she didn't fight the hold she was in.

Something told her that it wasn't a metaphor.

Feeling fear beginning to execute throughout her body, Alice gave Vivaldi a nervous look as the Queen gave a huff while she stood to her feet, "This is so annoying, now we must change our clothes… It's a shame too; this sunset is lasting longer than most."

She moved from her chair and began to make her leave as she glanced over her shoulder at Alice, "You are free to spend the night if you wish. A maid shall take you to your room."

Alice nodded dumbly, her new sense of fear not wavering from her stomach, "Thank you, but… What about Peter?"

The woman snorted, her hand waving off at her dully, "He has probably already incinerated the messenger. It would not surprise us if that were the case. Anyways, have a good night, Alice. You really should stay here. Our territory is top notch compared to the others." With her parting words she turned to make her leave.

Now she was beginning to have second thoughts about staying, even if it was just for the night.

Obviously from everyone's hints thrown about, Peter was a fire Elemental, but would he really just burn a messenger? Wasn't that like, unethical!?

Then again, he kidnapped her; she really doubted he had ethics that didn't include being a perverted kidnapper.

After her maid managed to bring her inside and began leading her to her room, Alice couldn't shake the bad feeling she got when her thoughts drifted to Peter.

The moment the maid stopped and showed her the room door, Alice scratched her cheek, "Sorry, but do you know where Peter White's room is?" She anxiously inquired with a bite to her bottom lip.

The maid turned to her curiously, "Lord White? Ah, yes, his room isn't too far from here. It's two halls over down this way and the first door on the right!"

Alice sent her a grateful smile with a nod, "Thank you so much!" Right after her words she quickly began making her way down the hallway, her mind repeatedly saying the maid's directions over and over while she followed them.

With how large the Castle was, the hallways were really long. She couldn't help but be out of breath as she turned down the corridor that she knew would lead her closer to her destination.

Right as she did so, she found herself bumping chests with someone incredibly solid.

Rubbing her forehead, she winced painfully as her face began a bit sore from the impact, "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention…" She trailed off as her face slowly came to meet with the person she bumped into.

She really had the worst luck ever.

"Alice!" Peter exclaimed, his tone easily distinguishable as surprised.

Alice dully watched as one of his hands went upward to adjust his glasses on his face, his mouth still formed into an 'o' shape.

Well, maybe not the worst. She _was _looking for him.

The white bunny ears were still on top of his head and after they gave a twitch she couldn't help but wonder somewhere in the back of her mind why he was an Elemental when technically that made him a shapeshifter…

Her focus was on more important things though.

"You! I've been looking for you all damn day, you know!" She hissed acidly, her eyes glaring up at him fiercely.

Peter blinked, his expression certainly wasn't what she expected it was going to be.

He looked _innocent_.

Also, he looked really handsome and God damn it, she wasn't supposed to be thinking things like that.

"You were… Looking for me?" He questioned slowly while pointing at his chest.

The brunette grunted as she took a step backward, "Yeah, I was! All because—Ack!" She let out a groan of surprise when she found herself being lunged at and incased in a powerful spine crushing hug.

His hold was iron strong and she was sure she felt something in her body pop as he snuggled closer to her. Desperately, she tried wiggling away, her mind already flying to how the situation could take a turn for the worst; however it was as though all her struggles were in vain because it was practically impossible to move with him latched on. If she could just free her hand, she'd be able to punch him, but she was stuck and vulnerable like this.

Peter was all too oblivious to her inner panic and only pulled her even closer to him, a blissful sigh escaping his mouth.

"Oh, Alice! I know I said I couldn't wait to see you again, but I had no idea you'd be so eager to see me too! I missed you so much! I'm so happy you missed me as well! My darling, finally we reunite! There's nothing separating us anymore—Argh!"

Alice allowed her leg that just kneed him in the crotch to drop as he released her and went crashing to the floor with both of his hands covering his groin in apparent agony.

Spitefully, she glared down at him, "Don't touch me, don't call me darling, and don't act like we're friends, you damn pervert." She harshly informed with steel eyes.

Peter groaned painfully, "I love you too."

"Did you not just hear me!? Your ears are way too big for you to be deaf!"

Did he really just say he loved her again? What a joke. He had to be messing around with her.

Growling beneath her breath, she clenched her fists and willed herself to be patient, though she could feel her blood threatening to boil, "Now listen here, I don't have time for games. You caused me so much stress today by making me go out on a bunny hunt for you."

Peter gradually got to his feet, his hands dusting himself off while he watched at her curiously and Alice couldn't help but inwardly moan at how he still appeared so innocent as though she didn't just knee him in the family jewels.

"Explain to me right now why you brought me here." She seriously demanded, her eyes staring into his firmly.

It took him a moment to fully register her words, but when he did, a smile came to his face and it was a smile similar to the one he had before he had left her up at the Clock Tower… It was more enigmatic and serious in a way. It caught her off guard as she watched at him dumbfounded.

"It's simple; I brought you here because I love you."

Eyebrows furrowing, she intensified her stare, "That's not a proper answer. Seriously, tell me why you brought me here. What could have possibly been a good reason to bring me here? It better be a good damn one, like me saving the world or something, or else you're going to get kicked in the bunny balls again, buddy." Alice threatened with a crack to her knuckles.

Peter didn't look the least bit afraid as he let out a small chuckle, "It is a proper answer because that is the only answer. Alice, I brought you here because I love you and I care for you. Need there be another reason? After all, it's what you wanted and who am I to deny you what you want?"

His last sentence made her eyes widen.

"What I wanted? What do you mean?" His open ended question actually made her a bit anxious… Why was everything so confusing? Sighing, she continued, "You know what? I don't even care why you brought me here. We can just forget all of this ever happened if you just take me home now."

The White Rabbit shook his head, "I couldn't do that even if I wanted to. You're the only one that can take yourself home."

Scowling, she folded her arms over her chest, "And how do I do that?"

"I do hope you've kept your vial around. Perhaps the answer rests in that somehow?"

Blinking, Alice averted her attention down to her apron pocket where she took out the light blue vial from before.

Lightly rolling it in her fingers, she frowned before looking up, "What does this have to do with it…?" She let her words fade off when she came to realize that the White Rabbit was gone.

Her rotten luck was slowly coming back to her.

Of course after she was tracking him down and barely staying alive, when she finally found him for some answers he pulled some riddle nonsense on her.

Briefly, she considered going to his room and throttling him until she got a proper answer but she stopped herself when her body released a yawn.

Realistically speaking, she had been on her feet all day and she just ate. She deserved some rest.

Alice turned around and began heading back for her room, her eyes dulling while she dragged her feet ahead.

What she needed right then was a good bath and some sleep.

She was really exhausted.

-.-

Alice moaned with a blink to her eyes as she laid down.

She seriously _just _shut her eyes, how was it morning already?

Rubbing one of her eyes tiredly, she slowly rose up and when she did, she nearly found herself falling back down into her bed—until she came to realize she wasn't laying on her bed.

"What the—!?" She cried out in shock, she rose to her feet with wide eyes and her heart beginning to race.

Everywhere around her looked like some kind of galaxy-space-like environment, despite this her feet were obviously set on something solid.

Looking about herself in a panic, she placed a hand near her chest.

She was still in her nightgown the maid had given her, but this definitely wasn't her room at the Castle of Hearts.

"Excellent observation." A new voice stated from above and with wide eyes she glanced around in an attempt to find the owner of it.

Was that God? Was she dead? Did someone eat her in her sleep?

"Come on, Alice. You're in Elemental territory, they don't eat humans."

"Okay, I'm pretty sure God isn't that sarcastic. Now who's there?" She seriously inquired while turning around and when she did so she became the slightest bit startled at the sight of a silver haired man apparently _floating _several feet away from her.

What the hell was he even wearing? All those loops and an eye patch too… It made him look even more otherworldly than the people she had met earlier.

"Rude." He snorted, his arms folding over his chest, though the smile on his face didn't falter, "My name is Nightmare. Welcome to the Dream World, Alice."

Her eyebrows furrowed and she took a step back skeptically, "Dream World…?" Her eyes glanced around her observantly before she turned back to him.

What exactly was he…? An illusionist? Were those even a monster in Underland? She couldn't remember.

Nightmare nodded, the amusement in his eye not settling too well with her gut, "I'm glad you're curious. Sorry if it's a disappointment to you, but I am an incubus."

"An _incubus_!?" She choked out in disbelief, her face faltering into nothing but disgust.

Incubuses were those sexual demons that had intercourse with females until they died or had a child, weren't they!?

Hands flying out to cover her body, Alice watched at him with fierce eyes, her cheeks beginning to heat up dangerously, "Stay away from me!"

Oh, God. She was going to be molested. There was nobody around, he could do it and no one would even know—

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Nightmare exclaimed, both his hands flying in front of his body while he rapidly shook them along with his head, his own cheeks appearing to grow red with embarrassment, "No, no! Incubuses aren't like the myths you have back in your world, I swear!"

Alice watched at him cautiously and Nightmare blanched, "I promise! We're not like that at all! Being an incubus just makes me a master of dreams and lets me read minds! If anything, I categorize as an esper!" He attempted to defend himself frantically.

Feeling a bit more at ease, she slowly allowed both of her hands to fall to her sides though she kept her eyes narrowed at him suspiciously.

"Don't give me that look. I'm a good boy, I promise."

Pursing her lips, Alice glanced away, "I'm assuming this is a dream considering how you said you're a master of dreams and this is the Dream World?"

Nightmare nodded with a sigh, "You are correct."

"So what made me so lucky to be graced with the presence of an incubus in my dream?" Alice questioned lowly as her eyes kept away from him.

She had to remember he could read her thoughts.

Back in her world she had always thought it'd be a cool ability, but it seemed like a major invasion of privacy.

The incubus hummed, his body still levitating, "Is it that bad for me to want to meet the human that all the territories in Underland are currently buzzing on about?" His lips quirked into a smirk and Alice found her eyes widening while he continued, "You managed to hit the mark and meet every single role holder in a single day too. You humans really are a symbol of good luck."

"Wait, does everyone seriously know I'm here!?" She couldn't help her voice from rising in volume when she met his gaze.

That was actually pretty embarrassing; it made her sound like a celebrity or something when she was far from it.

"Mmhm. Don't sound so surprised, news travels fast around here especially when something special like a human is involved." He gave her a smile that she inwardly groaned at.

Of course her worth was only in the fact she was a human.

Obviously that was the only thing worthwhile about her since it made her smell good. Other than that, she was just a basic girl…

Nightmare watched her knowingly, "Don't be so depressed. You're in Underland; you should be having more fun and enjoying the magic around you that your world doesn't have."

The brunette clicked her tongue, "I don't care if my world doesn't have magic! I just want to go back! At least there I'm not surrounded by carnivorous beings that think I smell appetizing!"

Floating over her head lazily, the silver haired dream demon let out a laugh, "You're much too stressed, Alice. Honestly, forget about your world for just a bit and appreciate the sights around you. I'm sure anyone else would like what they see."

"That's the thing. I'm not anyone else. I'm Alice Liddell and I—"

"You know, for someone so anxious about dying, it's terribly ironic that you decide to stay at the Castle of Hearts to sleep after staying with that Julius fellow."

Alice stopped her words, her eyes watching up at him curiously while she waited for him to continue.

Catching either her look or picking up her thoughts, Nightmare rested his arms behind his head, "Elementals have the highest mortality rate out of all the species in Underland, you know."

It took a moment for his words to register but when they did, Alice found something clicking in her head with a small whine, "Oh, no! Julius did say something about them being psychopaths, didn't he!?" She cried with her hands grasping her hair in panic.

Above her, Nightmare gave a chuckle, "Elementals have gained that representation fittingly… Ah, the 'Psychopaths of Underland,' the 'Sociopaths of Grimland,' oh, and my favorite the 'Looney Bin Cuckoo Clocks of Darkland'—"

Alice groaned while she put up a hand to silence him, "Alright, alright! I got it! They're all crazy!"

Just when she thought she was safe… Honestly, it was just her luck that she ended up sleeping under the same roof as the Country's wackos.

"Well, not seriously crazy like that. They're just very unstable because their connection to nature puts them all up in their feelings. It's easy for them to sway moods so killing can happen at the drop of a hat."

The brunette sighed heavily, though she supposed that made sense.

Vivaldi had only gotten slightly irritated before she ordered the execution and maybe that explained why Peter hugged her out of nowhere.

Ace had to be the only normal one of the pack.

"You're so cute." Nightmare laughed and Alice squinted up at him questioningly, "I'm sorry; it's just that you're so naïve about this world and your thought process with how everything's all new is really adorable."

As he snickered Alice could only blankly watch him.

"I'm far from cute." Alice responded dryly, "Word of warning, my thoughts can be pretty pessimistic at times."

"Oh?"

What a dickhead.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Nightmare sighed, "Other than that, I assume that what you've seen of the land is to your liking?"

Running a hand through her hair, Alice shrugged, "It's alright, but I'm not planning on staying long. First chance I get to go home, I'm zooming out of here like a witch on a broom."

"I'd love to see that."

Alice rolled her eyes while he chuckled into his hand, "Anyways, I can see that you're still being cautious about the dangers the land has. That's good. It's nice to get comfortable, but remember since you're human you need to keep your guard up. Underland can be a bloody place. It's definitely not for the faint of heart."

The brunette sighed, her arms folding over her chest, "Trust me, I know. Dying isn't on my To-Do list."

With the end of her words, she found her eyes wincing at the sudden appearance of a bright light that came to her left. She brought a hand to her forehead to shield her gaze from its intensity as Nightmare made a noise of surprise from above her.

"Oh, it looks like it's time to wake up, Alice."

Uncertain, the female could only gaze on as the light visibly grew as though it were rapidly approaching the two of them and at one point she had to shut her eyes when it became too much for them to handle.

**-.-**

**The dreadfully unoriginal introductions are over haha now it's time for Alice to have the adventure of a lifetime and this fic has about 30 chapters planned out so we'll see how this ride goes. I can guarantee it'll be very bumpy and wild**

**Will our heroine survive in this country? If so, will she somehow fall in love with one of the deliciously hot, but undeniably dangerous men that inhabit this strange new world? Or are all of them gay? Will she ever find a way to return home? Or will some sort of external force attempt to stop her? Find out next time on Underland Magic [echos] Magic… Magic… Magic… Magic…**


	4. Chapter 4

Alice peeked outside of her room door cautiously.

Her fingers clutched the cool metallic doorknob in her palm lightly and her breathing remained low as she stuck her head out into the hallway slightly in order to get a look down the corridor.

On both sides it appeared to be empty.

Letting out a small breath, she glanced over her shoulder at her bed that she had been sure to make up herself with the nightgown she had been provided folded up neatly near the pillows before she turned back to the exit.

Alice allowed her steps to go out and in the direction of Peter's room as she had gone only several hours previously.

Last night she hadn't been successful with getting Peter to tell her the proper way to get home, but she was determined to get through to him today.

As she began walking in the direction of his bedroom she couldn't help but notice how much she was actually used to her outfit. Before it had admittedly been a bit on the stuffy side, but now she felt way more comfortable.

With that passing thought, she couldn't help but wonder how Lorina reacted to her missing… Did she call the police? Or did she think that Alice had gone to a friend's house or something?

It'd only been about a day… Unless the time between this world and hers were on completely different spectrums.

Quickly shaking her head to rid herself of that notion, Alice stopped her steps as she made it before the White Rabbit's room.

Her eyes watched ahead at the door dully before she began knocking.

After her first few raps, she ceased and waited patiently for some kind of response and when several seconds came by with no results, she sighed before knocking again.

"Peter White, open the door! It's me, Alice! I need to speak to you!" She voiced out plainly before her knuckles stopped knocking.

Now folding her arms over her chests, she kept her eyes planted on the door bleakly.

This time when they talked she couldn't let him escape. She'd get her answers on how to go home.

With that, her eyes lowered slightly as she remembered how Peter claimed he brought her to Underland because he loved her…

That was unbelievably hard to comprehend. If anything, he hated her and that's why he brought her there.

Alice felt her heart begin to speed up and her stomach twist and she silently stood as her thoughts continued.

She was a human in a world of monsters now; he had to have wanted her dead if that was any reason for kidnapping her. And there was also the fact that he didn't even know her, how could he possibly love her?

Really, she wasn't anyone worth loving. If anything, he was probably aiming for Lorina, but accidentally scooped her up by accident. Anyone would rather have Lorina than her, after all so did—

Out of nowhere, a skull crushing sensation hit her in the brain and Alice choked out a gasp of pain as both of her hands flew to her head in an effort to comfort it. She could feel her body beginning to heat up rapidly and sweat forming on her face.

Her knees began to weaken and she shakily leaned against the cool wooden doorframe ahead of her in order to stay standing.

_Too far back. You're thinking too far back._

In the back of her mind she could hear a small voice whispering to her, though a majority of her focus was on the pain circulating in her skull like something were attempting to squeeze it in.

"Ah! Miss Alice, are you alright!?"

Alice blinked her eyes, the pain rushing away from her as though it had been carried back by a flood of water.

Her teal irises slowly moved from the floor to glance over at a maid that had her eyeless face inclined downward to her with nothing but concern seen on her expressible features.

Alice moved one of her hands to her heart that was still beating at an unbelievable pace but was slowly beginning to settle down while she let out a shaky breath, her legs allowing her to wobble a bit before she stood up straighter.

"Y-yeah! Haha, it was just a little headache! I'm fine!" She attempted to reassure with a smile.

The pain came out of nowhere and left just as quickly.

What the hell even was that?

The maid put a hand to her mouth, her eyebrows still creased in worry, "If you believe you're growing sick, I suggest visiting the Castle doctor! He is very good! It'd stop your illness before it becomes serious!"

Alice scratched her cheek, "Ah, I'm not getting sick or anything. I'm fine, really." As an afterthought she blinked, "Would elemental medication even work on me? We're different species after all."

"Medication is medication! In your world, I'm sure they test vaccines on animals before on humans even though you're different species, right?"

Nodding at the logic, the brunette put a hand to her chin, "Very good point. Anyways, thank you for your concern… I was just out here for Peter, but he isn't answering… I don't think he's in?"

The faceless maid smiled at her, "Oh, no, Lord White is currently in the garden with His and Her Majesty for breakfast!"

Alice's hands clasped together as she looked ahead at the woman pleadingly, "If it isn't too much trouble, could you pretty please show me the way there?"

After the maid nodded pleasantly, the female couldn't help but allow her smile to widen.

The walk throughout the Castle to reach the gardens was actually quite the workout and Alice at one point couldn't help but grow exasperated because she had a feeling in this world, she'd be getting a lot of exercising with the amount of walking she had been doing lately.

When the maid turned down one of the corners of the maze they had been treading through, Alice found her eyes widening in amazement at the table ahead of her that was so abundantly filled with food, drinks, and even little favors.

Seated at the table were Vivaldi and a green haired man that appeared to have eyes that were dully lowered and Peter stood to Vivaldi's right side, just a few inches away from the umbrella that was cast over the Queen and held by a servant.

Peter's eyes were glued to one of the many sheets of paper he held in his hands and he appeared to be reading off of them, his face easily distinguishable as annoyed and Alice found herself inwardly sighing at the sight.

It didn't look like she should interrogate him for answers here or now.

If anything, she couldn't stick around with the elementals for too long, not if she valued her life. With that passing thought, her eyes blankly watched at the faceless soldiers that were near Vivaldi.

She'd just head back to the Clock Tower and probably come back some other time to figure out how to get home.

Briefly, she considered just turning around and getting out of the Castle's territory, but she stopped herself.

Leaving without at least thanking Vivaldi for letting her spend the night would be rude and could quite possibly make her come off as some sort of freeloader, and that wasn't the best first impression ever.

Pushing down all of her anxiety, Alice cleared her throat, "Hello…" She greeted with a small wave as she emerged from the maze, a smile planted on her lips while she regarded the Queen of Hearts in particular.

Vivaldi glanced up from her tea, one of her eyebrows arching upward in questioning that nearly made Alice want to wet herself because it didn't appear as though she remembered her, however, the look was quickly replaced with that of apparent glee and the brunette was able to inwardly give a breath of relief.

"Alice, what a surprise it is to see you—"

"Alice!" Peter's voice immediately drowned out the Queen's words as he dropped the papers in his grasp before dashing off towards her.

Alice felt a twitch come to her eye as she prepared for his assault and when his body slammed into hers and encased her in the familiar spine breaking hug as before.

Grunting, she glared down at him, "Let me go!"

"Good morning, my sweet! Seeing you lucid and adorable so early has just made my morning!" The man exclaimed with a grin as he separated the hug in order to watch down at her face, "You came to see me again! Ahhh, being separated for too long makes you anxious too, huh?"

Alice felt her face flush slightly, the compliments catching her by surprise before she clenched her fists and huffed, "As if I came here to see you! I actually came to see Vivaldi!"

The White Rabbit's ear twitched while Vivaldi haughtily gave a laugh from her seat.

Both standing beings turned to look at the Queen as she gave Peter a condescending look, "Oh ho! White, we should have known you spoke nothing but lies when you claimed she was smitten with you. How pathetic, your delusions are beginning to catch up to your incompetency it would appear." With her words, Alice could only watch as some of the maids began frantically picking up the scattered papers Peter had dropped in favor of hugging her.

Vivaldi's head moved to rest on her hand that was propped up on the arm of her chair and Alice sighed right before Peter gave an indignant scoff, "Of course an unlovable hag like you would never understand the love Alice and I share."

Alice blanched.

Did he just call her an unlovable hag!?

The Queen of Hearts' smirk evaporated in favor of a scowl and the green haired man at the table held his hands out toward her, "N-now, now, Vivaldi… Don't get angry now…" He weakly stammered out and Alice found her head tilting to the side while she observed him.

Was it possible that he was the King of Hearts?

Thinking back on it, she was pretty sure she had seen him the night before in the hallway when she had met Vivaldi, but her mind mostly blocked him out.

Even now his presence seemed to fade into the background.

"You call us the unlovable one when it is clear that the girl would rather eat ashes than even have you within a mile radius of her." The Queen stated in a rather bored manner before her violet eyes cut over to Alice more positive way, "Alice, you should join us for the rest of breakfast. The food is better prepared than yesterday's, we are sure you will enjoy it."

Peter grunted, his eyes expressionlessly eyeing the older woman, "Naturally, all the gluttonous witch cares for is food. It's no wonder you've been appearing more spacious lately—"

Alice placed a hand over Peter's face in an effort to silence him with a groan of annoyance, "Geez, you're so rude. Watch your tongue, she's the Queen." She muttered over to him before she began to approach the table, a smile back on her face.

"Thank you for the offer, Vivaldi, but I really need to get going—"

"Are you rejecting us!?"

The brunette froze, her irises watching the woman that looked on at her through narrowed eyes.

Remembering how unstable elementals could be, Alice immediately began waving her hands in front of her frantically, "A-aha… You didn't let me finish…" Alice laughed out nervously, "I was going to say, I really need to get going and sit down so I can enjoy a quick breakfast with you!"

Quickly, she went to pull out a seat and she released a breath when two maids both rushed to her sides in order to begin filling her plate.

"Back away from her!" Peter shouted, instantly causing the two assisting her to flee while they mumbled their apologies fearfully, "You'll both get your germs on her food! Urgh, it's all tainted now!" The White Rabbit hissed as he took Alice's plate and chucked it across the table before the brunette could even voice her protest on his actions.

Alice watched speechlessly as the plate soared over in Vivaldi's direction and in her mind she prepared to panic because she was so positive it was going to land on her, but before the image of what she had already dreadfully playing in mind could occur, Vivaldi simply rose her hand up and waved it off with a flick of her wrist.

The reaction to this wasn't what Alice expected at all as the plate flipped backward and landed toward the middle of the table with a heavy crunch that signaled it had broken.

"Don't worry, Alice! I'll serve you!" Peter obliviously exclaimed as he began fixing more food from across the table for her.

Alice blinked her eyes, her gaze not lifting from Vivaldi in amazement.

Obviously, Vivaldi wasn't an esper so the only other explanation Alice's mind could come up with was the fact that she was an air elemental.

She supposed in a way that probably made sense…

The foot soldiers all had earth as an element which was kind of homely and anyone would associate earth as more of a 'dirty' commoner sort of element, for lack of a better word. Air on the other hand was the complete opposite and considering how Vivaldi was a royal to their peasant, it all fit.

She also couldn't help but remember something about 'noble gases' in one of her classes back in her world from years ago.

"That was so cool!" She praised with a hand to her chest.

Sensing that she was being addressed, Vivaldi turned to look at her with an arched brow and Alice knew she probably sounded a bit too excited and childish, but she couldn't help it.

The feat had been done so quickly, yet so nonchalantly and Vivaldi was so pretty that it made her look like some sort of super femme fatale or something.

"Hm?"

"What you just did! It was amazing!"

The Queen of Hearts didn't appear to understand and Alice placed both of her hands back on her lap, "I'm probably acting super embarrassing… But when you deflected the plate, it was very cool!" She couldn't help the reddening in her cheeks as it appeared everyone was beginning to look at her curiously.

Slowly, Vivaldi blinked her eyes as she now came to terms with what Alice was attempting to explain.

Putting a hand to her mouth as though to stifle a laugh, Vivaldi watched at her in amusement, "You find something so trivial to be worthy of praise? Humans truly are odd."

"Calling me odd is a bit harsh, don't you think?" Alice muttered dejectedly right before Peter pursed his lips, his hand fitting the heavily built plate of breakfast before her, "Stop trying to steal her attention from me!"

"There is nothing to steal because her attention was never with you, fool."

Alice let out a breath as she took in a forkful of eggs to her mouth.

So far, Peter was a fire elemental, Vivaldi was air, Ace was ice, and the other faceless soldiers were all earth.

She had yet to actually see Peter's abilities in action though…

Wordlessly, her gaze trailed over to him as she watched him continue arguing with Vivaldi from beside her through half lidded eyes.

He was actually pretty annoying the more she thought about it.

After downing a glass of orange juice and taking a couple more bits of a croissant she let out a breath, "Alright, so…" She began a bit loudly in order to gain Vivaldi's attention once more.

Alice sent the woman a beam, "I just wanted to say thank you so much for allowing me to spend the night in the Castle, Vivaldi. It really means so much to me and I hope sometime later I can repay you for your hospitality."

The violet haired woman eyed her curiously, "It was nothing. However, with the way you speak, we assume you plan on leaving?"

"Yes, I am."

"What!? Where would you go!?" Peter questioned frantically before Alice found his hands gripping her shoulders. She released an irritated moan as he lightly shook her, "Alice, you don't have to go! You can stay here at the Castle to live!"

"Hah. Not even on your life."

"Why not? What he says is valid for once." Vivaldi spoke out with a beckoning expression to her features, "You are free to stay and make the Castle of Hearts your home. You truly would not be a burden and we welcome you here with opened arms."

Alice sighed, her face giving her a smile as to not upset her because the last thing she wanted was for this to end badly, "No, no… I'm already staying at the Clock Tower and yesterday I actually told Julius I'd be back before nightfall, so I'm sure he's worried about me by now."

Vivaldi's eyes widened and Peter gasped in disbelief.

"You're staying at the Clock Tower with Julius Monrey!? Alice, no! That man is crawling in bacteria! Rumor has it that he never leaves his work to even take baths! That's not the type of man you want to be near! Stay here!"

Alice attempted to ignore Peter's cries as Vivaldi evaluated her knowledgably, "We see that even the espers aren't immune to your charm… Interesting…"

Blinking, the brunette tilted her head to the side slightly, "My charm…?"

The Queen snickered, "Your human's charm, dear. Your kind has a pleasant affect on Underlanders, no matter the species. That would explain why the Clockmaker is actually willing to let you be near him. He's rather reclusive, you know."

"Trust me, I know and I've barely spoken to him twice." Alice blankly remarked before she shook Peter from her side in order to stand up, "Anyways, I'll be off now." She smiled sweetly, "Thanks again, Vivaldi!"

With a nod, Vivaldi raised her hand to her mouth in order to take a sip of her tea, "Very well. We do hope that you will visit us during your stay here, Alice. You are rather interesting."

Waving, Alice laughed a bit, "Don't worry, I will! Goodbye for now!"

Turning back to reenter the maze she couldn't help but inwardly grunt when she realized she was being followed.

Not even bothering to turn around, Alice sped up her steps with aggravation threatening to erupt on her features as she heard Peter speak up, his steps now falling beside her, "Come on, Alice, you don't have to go. You can stay here; you'll love it way more than the Clock Tower."

"No. Now go away."

"But you like it here, don't you?"

"I thought it was alright before, but with you here, I'm actually thinking of never visiting again just so I won't have to see your face."

Peter let out a whine as Alice made a noise of surprise when his hand reached out to grab hers.

Alice prepared to shout at him for abruptly touching her, but when she turned to face him she found her voice gone when she saw how his face watched down at her.

He looked somewhat desperate and faintly frantic; practically as though he were growing distressed with the fact what he was saying wasn't getting through to her. Alice could have rolled her eyes at the thought.

Although she liked it at the Castle, she'd prefer to stay with Julius because even though he seemed snappy and cold, she'd rather put up with his verbal assaults rather than deal with a physical assault that any of the elementals could pull if she said the wrong thing.

Now, looking into Peter's red eyes, she couldn't help but notice again how attractive he was.

His white rabbit ears looked as furry as ever beneath the light and she beat down the fleeting thought in her mind that urged her to reach out and touch them.

"Please, Alice! That man can't make you happy like I can!" He protested with a slight pout, "Live here at the Castle and I promise I'll make you happy like you deserve to be!"

"If you want to make me happy, you'll stay as far away from me as possible." Alice dryly voiced out causing him to frown even deeper, "My sweet, your words are sharper than any knife could be to my skin, but the fiery embers of your love that flicker so passionately keep me coming back for more!" He then swooned out with a hand moving to his cheek while he released a blissful sigh.

"Were the poetic metaphors really necessary!?" She tore her hand away from him with a twitch, "Geez, if you want to make me happy, how about you tell me how to get home?"

Unlike what she expected, he didn't turn all serious as before and instead he continued going on obliviously about how she was simply showing 'tough love' because she was 'shy' and other nonsense that only made the brunette groan in irritation.

"Forget it. God, you're such a major waste of time, why did I even bother?" Alice mumbled mostly to herself as she turned down one of the maze ways quickly in an effort to lose him before he realized she was leaving.

"Wait, Alice! Where did you go!?"

Taking that as a signal to pick of the pace, Alice immediately began sprinting, her steps taking her down various turns throughout the maze, her thoughts not even on escaping out of the territory, just on losing Peter.

Huffing breathlessly, the female finally allowed her run to come to a halt.

She placed her hands on her knees tiredly while she attempted to catch her breath and as she did so, she perked up when she heard a familiar voice speak up not too far away from her.

"Hey, there Alice!"

With a glance upward through the thick of her hair, Alice was able to see Ace just about to walk through one of the maze's hedges, his scarlet eyes brimming brightly in optimism while he watched back at her with a grin.

Managing a smile, Alice weakly looked over at him as she straightened herself up, "Good morning, Ace." She greeted with a nod.

The brunet observed her knowingly, a hand moving to his chin wistfully, "Were you doing a morning jog?"

His voice was as light and carefree as usual and she couldn't help but laugh while she placed some of her hair behind her ears.

"No, no… I was just trying to run away to avoid a very annoying rabbit…" She muttered with her expression slowly becoming more and more cynical as she thought of Peter's face.

Ace blinked his eyes, his head tilting to the side a bit as Alice began walking toward him with her hands behind her back, "I'm on my way to the Clock Tower now. What about you?" She inquisitively inquired.

"Clock Tower? Cool, I'll walk you there. I have business there anyways." He smiled before scratching his cheek, "A rabbit? Oh, that reminds me! Did you ever solve what you wanted with Mr. Peter?" Ace questioned her with curiosity in his irises.

Alice sighed in preparation to answer, but before she could, he was continuing, "Did he burn you? Or at least tried to? Haha, I heard he was in such a good mood last night, so I doubt that he did."

Scoffing, Alice folded her arms over her chest, "Honestly, if Peter ever even tried to raise a flame my way, I'd beat him up. Stupid rabbit, he's so unhelpful…"

With her words it was practically impossible to ignore the look of bemusement that etched its way onto Ace's face while he watched her, "Eh? You're really speaking about him that way?"

She blinked as he went on with a knowing finger pointed upward, "I guess you and Mr. Peter must be really close friends or something! I'm surprised that you have such a casual relationship with him since he's normally so ruthless and cold!"

Taken by surprised, Alice made a low noise, "Uh… Cold and ruthless? Try annoying and useless. If anything I'm the one who's cold and ruthless to him, not the other way around at all." She blankly stated.

Before Ace could reply, the brunette found the wind being knocked out of her from behind as she was forcibly pulled into a crushing embrace.

Already knowing who it was, she found herself cringing in distaste immediately as Peter's voice rang in her ear, "Oh, Alice! I thought I lost you back there!" He stated loudly causing her to grimace even more in agitation.

"Let go of me!"

"Have you rethought your decision of living at the Clock Tower?"

"Get off!"

"The Castle of Hearts is the best option for you!"

"You're either deaf or you like pissing me off! Argh!"

From the corner of her eye Alice could see Ace standing and watching the scene, his face at first surprised before it gradually faded into amusement as he let out a laugh that caught Peter's attention enough for his grip on Alice to loosen slightly.

"I get it now! Mr. Peter has a crush on Alice!" The brunet acknowledged with his arms crossing over his chest.

Alice took that opportunity to break free of Peter's grip and move closer to Ace while she watched the Knight with flushing cheeks, "It's not even a crush! It's some weird stalker obsession!"

Her words went unnoticed as Peter snorted, "To downgrade my feelings for her to such an elementary degree is undignified. I wouldn't expect someone as dense as you to understand love, so I suppose it's expected." He harshly stated.

Ace's smile didn't fade as he let out another chuckle, "I may not understand love, but I do understand hate. So it's pretty easy for me to tell that Alice hates you—"

Before his words could properly end, Alice found her eyes widening as Peter drew back his right hand and in the process of him doing so, it was clear to see an orange light begin to emit from his forearm and downward, before he pushed it back ahead in Ace's direction allowing for a spiraling flame to cast off of his limb and go soaring.

The sight was enough to startle her as she winced with an instinct step backward. Her head whirled over to Ace fearfully and she watched at the male simply side stepped the incoming fireball that landed on the ground near the hedge behind him, immediately causing it to burn out a dark spot on the earth.

Alice put a hand to her mouth in astonishment at the display, her eyes moving back to look at Peter's arm where the fire had come from and she couldn't help but intrigued at how there was no sign of burn marks on his clothing or anything.

"Watch your mouth when speaking about things you don't know anything about, you idiotic Knight." Peter spitefully commanded, his eyes watching at Ace in annoyance.

Alice actually found herself growing a bit more fearful at the impending situation.

Peter had actually been aiming for Ace with how close the collision had been.

They were both workers for the Castle of Hearts, wasn't that a bad thing!?

Before she could voice her thoughts, Ace let out a loud laugh, "Oooh! So the thought of Alice hating you gets you touchy, huh?" With his words he began walking toward the female in question and Alice made a small noise when his hand rested on her shoulder before he grinned at Peter, "Sorry to hit you where it hurts again, but Alice ha-tes yo-u~" He pronounced both words out in a sing-song like fashion and Alice watched at him in disbelief.

"Ace, you—"

Before she could finish, she found herself yelping in surprise as Ace suddenly pulled her to the side roughly, her body entirely unprepared as her feet dragged on the floor right before she felt a large amount of heat soar by her face along with a bright light.

Eyes wide, she turned her head around in the direction she saw the flame pass her by to see it as nothing more but a burnt spot on the ground behind her.

Peter nearly hit them!

"Hahaha! Careful, Mr. Peter! You'll end up hitting Alice!" Ace laughed out cheerfully and Alice found nothing but fear beginning to overtake her senses as she remained frozen in Ace's grasp.

She was going to die!

Peter glowered at Ace viciously, one of his hands moving to push his glasses up his nose while the other remained upward in a rather offensive position that made Alice want to cry because she just knew that if he decided to attack with his flames again, that'd be the hand he'd use, "Release her now, you pathetic knave. Or are you really that pitiful that you can't fight me without using her as a way to protect yourself?"

Ace snickered, "Nah, I was just trying to get a rise out of you." His eyes flashed with anticipation as he now let go of her, his smile appearing to widen as he reached to his side to retrieve his sword, "But if you were actually looking for a fight, I'm happy you chose me for an opponent!" As he unsheathed his sword, Alice couldn't help but wordlessly watch in a mixture of both fear and wonder at how there were evident sparks of what appeared to be lightning encasing the metallic weapon.

But he was an ice elemental? How was there lightning…?

Pushing those thoughts to the back of her mind as she reminded herself of her situation, Alice held both of her hands upward and in between the males with a grunt, "Okay, that's enough!" She shouted out loudly, easily gaining both of their attentions.

She gave both of them firm glares, "No more fighting or at least, not now while I'm here! Put your weapons away!" She ordered and when they both remained in their same positions she groaned, "You, put your sword away!" Her eyes stared at Ace solidly before he slowly did as she commanded. Next, she whirled her head over towards Peter, "You, put your fire arms away!"

That pun needed to be said despite how grave her situation was.

It was _needed._

Obediently, Peter did as she said before he launched himself off at her to embrace her in another hug, "Alice, I'm so sorry for almost hurting you! It really wasn't my intention!" He informed her while snuggling into her neck.

Alice released a heavy sigh, her eyes watching ahead of her blankly, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just go back to the Castle now."

"But—"

"Don't you have more work to do or something?" She blandly inquired causing him to release her and gaze into her face in determination, "I do, however, spending the day with you seems much better!"

The human resisted the urge to roll her eyes before she groaned, "Alright, how about this? If you leave now and do your work diligently, I promise I'll come back to the Castle to visit at some point, deal?"

Her words didn't even properly finish as Peter was already zooming off in the opposite direction.

With him gone, Alice watched the direction he went off in expressionlessly, "I'd rather eat his flames than actually come back here."

Ace let out a laugh and Alice was reminded of his presence once more as she turned to him plainly.

The brunet chuckled, "That actually sounds pretty dirty!"

"How old are you?" Alice sarcastically muttered, though even she herself could understand how that was taken out of context. As an afterthought, she found her eyes wandering to his sheathed sword that was at his side.

"Say, Ace…" She began lowly as he ceased his laughs, "You're an ice elemental, right?"

Ace hummed, a new kind of smile making its way to his face that Alice had to note was a bit different from his normal smiles, just in a way she couldn't quite place, "Yes and no. I'm a tri-powered elemental."

Nodding, she began her walk ahead and Ace followed beside her, "Its self explanatory, but I can control three elements as opposed to the usual standard."

"Oh… So ice, lightning and…?"

"Earth."

"Like the soldiers?" She acknowledged in wonder as he nodded, the expression on his face didn't seem to lighten and Alice wondered if they were treading on a topic that wasn't comfortable for him.

Ace glanced upward at the sky, "At the end of the day, I'm not different from them at all."

Not really seeing that as an opened invitation to continue the conversation, Alice simply nodded her head silently and kept herself moving forward.

Their trip throughout the maze had been a fairly silent one and when they finally made it out; Ace seemed to be back to normal and was chattering on about trivial things that Alice engaged back in whole heartedly.

At one point he had insisted he knew a short cut to the Tower, but Alice had been weary because the Clock Tower was literally within sight and she stubbornly kept going her own way before Ace reluctantly followed.

"I'm telling you, if you had followed my directions, we would have been here way earlier!" Ace exclaimed lazily with his hands behind his head leisurely as Alice opened the door to Julius' office.

She gave him a tired look, "Alright, alright, next time we can use your short cut. Sorry, but I was a bit anxious about going off the path and into the forest. I'm a human and if monsters lurk in there, it'd be easy for me to get hurt or something."

Ace laughed lightly, "If you're worried about stray ghouls or something attacking you, you don't even have to stress! As a Knight, I'd be sure to protect you!"

Alice shook her head as she turned her attention up ahead to where Julius was sat still working on a clock as he had been right when she left the day before.

Upon seeing him, her lips broke out into a smile as he watched at both her and Ace in surprise, "You two have already met?" He questioned, momentarily halting his work.

The brunette nodded with a giggle, "Yeah, we—Mmmph!" She muffled out as Ace's fingers slid over her mouth smoothly.

The Knight leaned on her with a cheeky grin on his face, "Totally! Alice met me outside of the Castle of Hearts, you know! She seduced me into helping her get inside!" The brunet's eyes mischievously gazed on at Julius before he winked, "Are you jealous, Julius?"

Julius looked at him through completely unimpressed eyes while Alice sputtered in an attempt to remove his hand.

"H-he's lying!" She proclaimed with a flail to her arms.

Snickering, Ace began moving toward one of the ends of the room, "It was a joke! I actually met her outside of the Castle while she was crying!"

"How many times do I have to say that I wasn't crying!?"

Julius shook his head before he returned his attention to his work as Ace pulled off a brown cloak from the wall as well as a silver mask.

Alice watched him pull it over himself and adjust the mask to his face firmly, the look was actually kind of creepy in a way and couldn't help but wonder what exactly he was planning on doing while dressed like that.

"Well, anyways, I came here to see Alice off, but I figured I could get a head start on work today too, so I'll be back later, Julius! Also, see you around Alice!" He flashed a brief thumbs up to both of them right before he exited the room.

The brunette let out a breath before she turned toward the seated male with her hands by her apron tiredly, "Walking all the way from the Castle to here was so tiring." She remarked as she began walking to his desk, "But more importantly, I'm surprised that you and Ace are friends… What an odd mix."

"We're not really friends. We're co-workers." Julius firmly denied, his hands still working at the clock beneath his tools diligently.

"What? Really? He told me you guys are like besties." Alice blinked as she pulled out a seat from one the table nearby in order to place it near the man's desk.

She took a seat and watched as he continued, "Did he now? Well, Ace perceives the world differently than most do." Even with the insult, Alice couldn't help but let out a giggle.

He was being pretty sarcastic.

That must have meant he and Ace were close or something, which she still saw as weird considering how Ace was so warm and friendly and Julius was so cold and grumpy.

"Anyways, I should say that I'm surprised you're alive." One of his hands lowered his screw driver and Alice watched in awe as his fingers wiggled in the direction of his wrench from across the table and the tool floated upward before moving into his awaiting grasp, "After you didn't show up last night, I assumed you died." He bluntly informed.

Alice pouted, "Hey, that's mean! Don't just single me out as _that_ weak!"

Julius didn't appear moved by her words and as she prepared to go on, she found herself briefly remembering Nightmare.

Putting a hand to her cup her chin, Alice's head leaned downward, "So I guess I should also mention that I'm probably going to be stuck here in Underland for a bit longer… Sorry for the intrusion, but I'll be sticking around the Tower more."

His expression didn't change in the slightest, but Alice didn't lose her good will as she straightened up, "In other news… Last night an incubus was in my dream. He said his name was Nightmare. I'm not sure if the food I ate at the Queen's dinner was drugged or not, but he seemed pretty real to me. Do you know him by any chance? He said he was an esper."

She came to notice that with her words Julius' pattern in work was disrupted momentarily and only for the slightest second, as though her words took him by surprise that he had to catch himself but he quickly brought his guard back up and continued his work.

"I do."

With how he replied, Alice knew not to press on the matter.

For a while she just sat and watched him continue fixing the clock. Every so often when he'd need a new tool that was on the farther end of the table, he'd raise his hand and use his telekinesis to retrieve it and at one point he rose up both of his hands and began using his abilities to make three screw drivers go to work on the clock with such precision that Alice was captivated in awe from it all.

Sure, what she had seen of the elementals with Peter, Ace, and Vivaldi had been cool, but what Julius was doing was so systematic, it was really something to marvel at.

"Are you alright?" Julius voiced and his voice broke the silence the two were under.

Alice blinked her eyes as she glanced up from the clock that he finished fixing to return his gaze.

Dumbly, she nodded, "Did it seem like I wasn't?" She laughed out lightly.

Julius' eyebrows appeared to scrunch up in brief confusion, "You just seemed to be in a daze. I wouldn't know. Are you bored? You don't have to feel obligated to stick around or anything."

Now understanding what was causing him the disturbance, the female blushed lightly, "Oh! Sorry, I didn't realize my staring was bothering you, I'll just—"

"No, it wasn't bothering me. You were just so quiet that I thought something was wrong."

"I still feel like it was kind of weird for me to stare, sorry about that." Alice scratched the back of her head with a smile before she stood to her feet, "You know what? I'll occupy myself now. How about I make you some food or something?"

She remembered passing the little kitchen in her exploration of the Tower from her first night there. There seemed to be plenty of food, it wouldn't be a problem to just whip something up really quickly.

Not even waiting for him to protest, Alice was already out the door.

When she made it back in with some sandwiches and fruit juice, she found Julius was working on yet another clock.

It was as though the work load was truly never ending…

"I have food!" She sang out with a grin, "It's lunch break time!"

Julius paused from his work, his eyes watching at her dully, "You're so loud."

"Well, if I don't announce it I feel as though you'll just ignore me."

He shook his head and for a moment Alice figured that he'd actually get up and approach her at the table to eat, but instead he went right back to work.

Giving him a look of disbelief, she flailed her arms, "Come on! I spent so much time making the sandwiches! I even cut them all cute!"

"I'll eat them when I go on break."

"When will that be?"

"When I finish these set of clocks."

"Julius."

"Hm?"

"There are at least fifty of those clocks in there!"

"Hm."

Groaning, Alice moved her hand over to take a sip of the red colored juice before her.

He kind of reminded her of her dad. He was a workaholic too and he had hermit tendencies whenever the work could be done within his office… Lorina would always have to go in there and practically force him to eat before he passed out.

She briefly wondered if she'd end up taking up that role with Julius before she remembered that Julius wasn't human and for all she knew, espers didn't need to eat as frequently as humans did to survive.

The thought actually made her realize there was a lot that she didn't necessarily know about the world she was in.

Elementals, espers, and humans all basically seemed the same, just with the former two having extra abilities over the later.

"Julius, how exactly are elementals and espers different from humans?" Alice inquired out loud while reaching for one of her triangle cut sandwiches, "I mean, I understand you all have like an added power, but other than that we all look the same. How can someone look at me and see me as a human instead of an esper?"

Julius didn't glance up from the clock that he was tuning with a wrench, "It's all in scent and aura."

After his words, she found herself perking up at the dim memory of all those at the Amusement Park remarking on her good smell and even Ace had said something about her aura being something like a witch when they first met.

"Humans are very distinct in both of those senses. Anyone here could look at you and see you're different just from those. Especially ghouls, they'd know you're human from a mile away."

His use of the word ghoul caught her attention and she recalled Ace saying something about them before too.

Curiously, she prepared to ask him what those were, but before she could the door to the office was opening and she turned around to see who was entering curiously.

"Alice~" Boris sang from his spot at the doorway mischievously.

Alice found herself laughing a bit as she waved at him politely, "Hey, Boris!"

"Sweet, so the Prime Minister didn't roast you!" He exclaimed with a grin as he walked inside and gave Julius an impish stare, "I still can't believe the Clockmaker is the one holding the human all to himself. Selfish, much?"

"You think I chose for her to stay here?"

"You're making it sound like I forced myself on you!"

"That's because you did."

"I had no other choice!"

"You forced yourself on the Clockmaker?" Boris intervened as he grabbed her by the wrist, his grin appearing to broaden, "That sounds hot. Maybe you can force yourself on me too… Though it wouldn't really be forceful since I'd want it." He winked at her before he pulled her closer and in her flustered state from his words, she found herself stumbling into his chest.

Snickering lowly, the Cheshire Cat glanced over at Julius, "I'm borrowing the human for a bit, Clockmaker."

Julius looked at him impassively, "She's not a toy."

Not really listening, Boris turned his attention back down to the squirming girl in grasp, "Let's hit up the Amusement Park together! Our time was cut short yesterday, but I guarantee this time your mind will be blown."

He didn't wait for her to respond before he began rushing out the door and Alice could only clumsily attempt to keep up.

Desperately, she glanced over her shoulder at Julius, "Uh, see you later?" She unsurely stated before the door shut.

**-.-**

**Really having way too much fun thinking about where the plot is going to go. Haha also happy holidays everyone! Enjoy yourselves! :D**

**If you have the time I implore you to review :)**


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